


Guardian Of Angels

by BeckstMirk



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Canon, Alternate Universe, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-12
Updated: 2014-01-26
Packaged: 2018-01-08 10:08:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 22,892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1131372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeckstMirk/pseuds/BeckstMirk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In a world where the supernatural floats easily between worlds under law and protection, Dean Winchester is a highly adept hunter and bodyguard. After being hired to protect Castiel Novak, an angel turned into a singing superstar, Dean doesn’t expect to find his usually business protocol turned upside down.</p>
<p>Based on the movie ‘The Bodyguard’.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

  * For [paytonmarissa](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=paytonmarissa).



> I started posting this on Tumblr first. I had massive support to make this story and this is my very first posting on a fanfiction site. I welcome all constructive criticism! I would like to dedicate this to a follower of mine, paytonmarissa, who has been SO supportive of this fic. Enjoy!

Everyone who was alive and able at the time remembers “The Fall”. It was the first noticing and understanding that the real world wasn’t all as it seems. Rather like people believed in aliens, or the second coming, or whatever they wanted to believe, it was like something out of a movie.  
It was a bittersweet notion, some embraced it, some hated it, either way it was fact. Humans didn’t walk alone. The above world in heaven and the bowels of hell entirely existed, and the veil of truth couldn’t be disguised any longer.  
It was a massive circular of events that lead to the world today, and things suffered on every side as all out war blemished the earth.  
Dean Winchester remembers it well. He remembers being a child of four years old as something crashed into his suburban house, he remembers the heat and the fire, and his mother handing him his baby brother Sam and telling him to get out.  
He remembers staring up as a giant figure with wings crawled out of the wreckage of his burning home and disappearing before the skin around his eyes began to hurt, and he remembers seeing more of those flaming falling comets crashing downwards from the sky every which way he turned. He also remembers havoc as his neighbours gathered around in fear and shock, and then their screams moments later with the sound of ripping flesh and pouring of blood and cavernous wreckage as creatures, twisted with evil and black eyes ravaged through human life like they were paper, hungry as some drank from them, or just tore them to shreds.  
Dean remembered the pounding of his young heart, how kids his age and went to school with cried with fear, some taken from the ground, and Sam wailing in abject terror, and he knew what he must do, not waiting for instruction from an adult he ran, he ran as fast as he could, his mother had told him to watch his brother, to protect him, he was a child, but he understood the importance. He ran and ran for miles, ran fast till his lungs burned, turning into a large cornfield way out of town to lose anything on their trail.  
He recalls finding a deserted fox’s den and hiding in there as silent as he could, praying heavily for his parents to find him.  
He remembers finding a berry bush his mother once told him was good to eat, he remembers getting enough to just to make Sam less hungry even though he remembers Sam was only beginning to eat solids.  
He remembers the feeling hungry and tired and scared, he was there for three days until he heard his father’s voice amongst others calling him frantically. He remembers yelling as hard he could and finally his father appearing and gathering him and Sam into his arms and hugging them tight.  
It was one time he had he seen his father cry.  
The remaining people from their neighbourhood had been helping the search for the lost Winchester boys, hoping not to add two more dead from their list.  
His mother, Mary, hadn’t made it; she had burned in the fire.  
Dean felt half of himself leave forever, the town he lived in felt like a ghost town.  
Eventually when the meteor showers started to calm, John Winchester woke Dean from his bed in the town shelter and told him they were leaving, right now.  
Dean and Sam were bundled into his father’s Chevy Impala and driven for days eastward, where John explained they were going to see a family friend named Bobby Singer.  
When they got there, Dean remembered meeting an older man in a baseball cap and vest in the drive of a garage, who embraced his father with sorrow and then bent slightly to Dean, who was holding Sam in his arms  
“how you doin’ boy?” he asked in his southern drawl  
Dean felt intimated, but tried not to show it, so he nodded.  
He and his brother were fed and watered, and more and more people came into the house as the hours passed, lots of people who knew his father, and they all were mourning the loss of his mother.  
He remembers creeping out of the bed half an hour after Bobby put him there and sitting on the stairs seeing those people, and more, all gather in Bobby’s study and dining area, talking adult things and words Dean couldn’t understand, but he knew a military plan when he saw it, his Dad watched movies like that.  
The people gathered, he saw them everyday in and out of Bobby’s home where Dean, Sam and John were living; sometimes his father went with them out for days.  
Dean hadn’t understood and felt uncomfortable being left with a man he barely knew, but eventually he learned to relax around Bobby, it was obvious the man meant no harm.  
One day he plucked the courage to ask Bobby the question that had been lingering for weeks on his mind.  
He told Bobby what had happened that night, asked him what was going on.  
He learnt those creatures with black eyes were demons, who were roaming the earth because something had closed the gates of hell. It was explained to him carefully but as accurately as possible.  
The creatures who fell to earth were Angels, those were creatures Dean had heard of from his mother. But no one could understand why they had been cast from heaven.  
The people gathered when Dean came were hunters, protectors of the supernatural, honour bound to protect human life, saving people, hunting things, family business.  
To his shock, he learnt his mother, Mary, had been a hunter, and that was her job, not working as a secretary as Dean once believed.  
And Bobby told him with complete sad truth it was just the beginning of what was going to come.  
He had been right.  
Dean and his brother grew up in a world of war as demons wrecked havoc, Angels wandered lost and in chaos, and hunters had to deal with both and have the price of explaining to the world what had happened.  
Dean was 9 when his father John finally confessed he closed the gates of hell, in the attempt to have his wife live normally and not be a hunter anymore, which had cost the world today. Dean wasn’t sure if he could forgive his father for all the loss he had seen.  
John Winchester died 3 days later protecting his sons from an angry demon.  
Dean had learnt some way of protecting him and Sam, but now he knew he had to help redeem his father from the angry world.  
Years moved on, and war ravaged until most of the primary leaders were cut down but for two, Chuck Novak and Crowley, King of hell.  
World leaders, the presidents and monarchs across the globe debated for years what to do with everything and how to stop the senseless deaths. Hunters were a law unto themselves and pretty soon even the demons got tired of forever being destroyed.  
The president of the United States appointed a department specifically for the rights and laws for supernatural sources, in order to finally reach a summit. Dean was 17 when Chuck, Crowley and Bobby left to lay out the laws.  
It was decreed that if demons and angels were stuck on earth, they were to live amongst the lands, and could live peacefully should they abide the laws, however if they didn’t, 3 strikes and they were out.  
Hunters were appointed still to deal with any of the supernatural who went out of line after the treaty was signed.  
Dean was 19 years old.  
It was not easy, not by a long shot, but slowly things started to change, demons who wanted the freedom carried on their lives, angels as well found their feet, pretty soon it was normal to see all parties walking around in the street.  
In today’s world, Hunters were assigned to many things in their field, paid well for their duty, many didn’t forget the old days but it was working amongst them.  
Somewhat.  
Dean Winchester gained a reputation for being one of the best hunters out there, he was loyal to the work and he was good to the laws, though he had some rules of his own. He never dealt directly with angels and demons, those who worked for them, or helped them, sure. He never dropped his guard, he never kept his charge out of sight.  
In now 30 years since The Fall, Dean Winchester had never changed his rules.


	2. The Past Will Eventually Bite You On The Ass

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dean gets a visit from a family friend who has a proposal he's not going to like.

Three booming gunshots echoed in the deathly quiet parking lot, each from two guns, so fast and close they were barely distinguishable.  
Dean Winchester was crouched down very, very still, focused determination on his face as his raised gun smoked in the cold air, paying no attention to the ache in his legs.  
The demon hitman leant against a car across from him, sitting on his backside, the specialised bullets causing it’s life to ebb away, it’s white pupilless eyes merited surprise as it looked at Dean.  
Dean didn’t move, even as the creature finally lost it’s grip on it’s life and fell forward onto the cement floor with a sickening crunch, dark green blood pooled underneath it like a dam spreading along the concrete.

Below Dean’s knees Senator Klingman lay on the filthy ground, he was gasping in barely controlled fear as his Armani suit soaked up the black oil from the nearby vehicle.  
“Stay down” Dean said quietly but clearly, pressing his spare hand on the twitching Senator “Stay down!” he ordered more firmly, eyes and ears open for any further threat.  
Dean heard a noise of feet on stone and he swivelled his gun to his left hand side  
“FREEZE!” he yelled, focusing at his next target  
A uniformed chauffeur froze in his tracks, arms up and probably about to piss his pants. Dean recognised him, but remained guarded, the gun up, the chauffeur opened his mouth  
“Don’t talk!” Dean commanded, using one hand to reach to his belt, easily grabbing a flask, tossing it to the chauffeur “drink this”  
The chauffeur, Jimmy, obeyed with shaky hands, watching under Dean’s steel gaze as he drank some holy water.  
Dean relaxed just a tiny bit as nothing happened, he next took the silver knife from his belt and tossed it along the ground.  
The chauffeur immediately grabbed it and like he had done a few times before, drew blood.  
Satisified Jimmy wasn’t possessed, Dean lowered his weapon  
“Call 911” he ordered calmly.  
The Chauffeur nodded, trembling, and fumbled for his phone, dialling frantically.  
Cautious a moment or so, Dean waited a moment more then he rose and helped the Senator to his feet.  
“Jesus” Klingman uttered, shaking head to foot “Dean…”  
“Spare me the praises right now, Senator, lets get you to a safe place” Dean instructed

At the Senator’s home, Dean did the same checks on his client as he did his driver, watching as the speaker for demons and angels took a long drink of Holy water, and then cut his arm with the cleaned silver blade.  
It was only then that Dean offered a smile and a nod of approval  
“When The President said you were good, I was not expecting it to be so true” Klingsman gave a nervous laugh, his hands were shaking as he gave Dean back the flask and blade.  
Dean offered another smile “Bobby is the one that assigned me”  
“Then I must learn to thank Bobby more often” Klingsman said as he moved to his drinks cabinet behind the couch “I’ve been at this post for 10 years, and it’s a post I take proudly, though I am human, it is important to represent all those who walk this earth”  
Dean considered a moment “not every demon is gonna agree Senator”  
“Yes” Klingsman agreed as he poured brandy into two glasses “it is still a fragile world, but one I am still determined to help, there is no doubt that will not be the last demon who wants me to die”  
Dean nodded, no use in wavering the truth “well... you know where to find me”  
Klingsman turned, with the two glasses in hand “you know, I’d like you to stay on”  
Dean gave a crooked smile “I’m not good in permanent positions, my feet go to sleep”  
Klingsman smiled back, and nodded, then offered Dean the glass which the hunter took  
“An agreement, is an agreement” the Senator said as he went to his desk drawer, unlocked it and pulled out an unmarked envelope, then walked over and handed it to Dean  
“Thank you, Dean”  
The two men smiled at each other, then raised their glasses in joint salutation, Klingsman drank from his glass, Dean didn’t.  
“Now, should you ever change your mind”  
Dean chuckled “I’ll be knocking you first”  
The hunter put down his full glass on the coffee table and headed to the door  
“I won’t forget what you taught me” Klingsman said as he watched the younger man gather the last pieces of his inventory.  
Dean looked at him and nodded “good”  
“Oh and Dean?”  
The hunter turned from the door once more, Klingsman looked at him kindly  
“Your service is considered now all things done by your father to be clean slated”  
Dean took a tiny breath as he took this in, but keeping composure he nodded once more, smiled and left the room.

The drive home. Home at last. Dean finally could feel the tension leave him as soon as he would get through the door.  
Sunrise was beckoning, he was not one for emotional goodbyes, so left before the Senator he had served for a nearing year woke.  
Once he got on the highway he allowed the breath he was holding to leave his lungs, for his music to go on, AC-DC, and a small smile to grace his lips as he drove his beloved Impala Chevy across the distance.  
“Just you and me, sweetheart” he said fondly to the vehicle that had been present his whole life “when we get home I’ll give you a tune up to make you feel better, alright?”  
The car seemed to purr in response, making Dean chuckle. He supposed it would be rather weird to an outsider how one would speak to his car like it was his spouse, but truth is Baby had been a constant in Dean’s life rather like one, he hadn’t found someone to share such a desire yet, and yet to be honest with his career, he doubted it would be possible.   
But that didn’t matter much to Dean, what matter right now was home and switching off for a little while, returning to some home comforts.   
Dean’s home was known as the Men of Letters bunker, something that ran in his family and one of the hunter’s way points, a large base of knowledge. Not that they used it all that much these days, everyone these days were spread out and working other sub jobs like he was, but since Dean hadn’t much where else to go, he used it for his own, and no one really minded.  
He had left his motel as soon as the morning light. It would take most of the day to get home, Dean was still on full alert, it was always the way after finishing up a job, adrenaline rushed his system until he was able to truly know all was safe and as it should be.  
It was late and dark as Dean finally pulled up to the bunker, finally feeling the ease of home rush over him. Now able to breathe properly out of sight of anything and anyone, he pulled out his phone as he exited the driver’s seat and called the one person he wanted to speak to.  
The phone rang a few times before the other person picked up.  
“Dean?!”  
Dean smiled as the familiar voice of his baby brother filled his ear, a voice he had missed.   
“Hey Sammy, long time no speak” he chirruped as he opened the boot of his car, grabbed the bags of shopping he had bought and made his way to the front door.  
“Jesus Dean, it’s been almost a year!” Sam cried  
Dean chuckled as he pulled out his house keys from his coat pocket, eyeing the rampant foliage and overgrown grass around the front.  
“I only knew you were alive because I sometimes caught you on TV!”  
“Well then you knew I was doing a big gig and it was in the interest of the client I keep my whereabouts quiet” Dean responded as he unlocked the door.  
“You sound like Bobby”  
Dean laughed as he shoved the door, kicking away the mountain of letters from his doorstep, he vaguely wondered if this is what it was like to be Santa Claus, noting also how obviously none of his Hunter brethren had been to use the bunker in his absence.  
“Man, it’s good to hear your voice little brother”  
“I’m glad you're safe, Dean”  
“How’s Alaska?”  
“I’m in Canada, Dean” Sam grumbled  
Dean chuckled, he loved teasing him as he descended the steps “still a snowy place”  
“That it is, Barney is enjoying it immensely”  
“Christ, that mutt is still alive?” Dean exclaimed as he headed towards the kitchen  
“Still kicking” Sam replied  
“Unbelievable”  
Sam laughed “listen Dean, it’s pretty late and I gotta case tomorrow”  
Dean waved it off even though Sam couldn’t see it “it’s cool, Sam, you go sleep, I just wanted to hear your voice, makes me all tingly”  
“Jerk”  
“Bitch”  
Both brothers laughed  
“Call me tomorrow ok?” Sam asked  
“Sure will, kiddo, sleep good” Dean said as he hung up and put the phone aside so he could put the food items away in the fridge.  
He spent the next few hours settling in, getting his suitcases from the car, finishing any last minute washing into the machines, making his bed, checking all the wards were in tack, cleaning his weapons and replenishing anything he needed, and finally weary enough, he was able to drift to sleep, home at last.

Dean woke up the next morning to the quiet bunker and decided he should really start making the place a little more presentable, he uncovered the sheets off the furniture he had left, cleaned the kitchen and then went about tackling the jungle outside, he cut the grass, pulled the weeds and trimmed back the bushes.  
It was about 4 in the afternoon and he was servicing Baby as he promised, when a familiar truck pulled into the private road leading the men of letters bunker.  
As Dean always predicted, Bobby looked more or less the same he had for years, no matter his status in history, or his leadership of all hunters (or overlord as Garth once had said) he still wore his baseball cap, vest and jeans like the everyday man.  
The hunter leader emerged from his truck and smiled as he saw Dean, laughing and opened his arms in a fatherly fashion to embrace the 34 year old  
“Haha, Dean, so glad you’re in one piece”  
Dean smiled and patted Bobby on the broadness of his back, he had only communicated with Bobby maybe twice on his assignment this time.  
“You doubted my skills?” Dean quipped with a grin  
Bobby chuckled “you did good, boy, Senator is pleased”  
Dean nodded, with a smile as he wiped the oil check of his car with a cloth  
“so what was it?”  
“Samhain Demon”  
Bobby hissed with a wince to match “nasty sonofabitches”  
“Yeah well, was a couple of tried hits from it’s group that got me burned in the beginning” Dean remarked, nodding to his arm which was more or less healed “got it in the end”  
“I knew you could do it” Bobby said, then he reached into his pocket, pulling out a carrier bag from the depths of his pockets  
“Bought you something”  
Dean grinned ear to ear and took the bag  
“Ah Bobby! I think I know what this is” he exclaimed as he peered in “yep! Apple pie, you beauty, I’ll marry you on the morrow” he winked  
Bobby scoffed “boy, you keep your eyes open for any girl or boy and leave me out of your nuptial desires”  
Dean grinned as he opened the packet surrounding the pie. Bobby had always accepted him as he was, even when he was teenager when he realised he was bisexual, he told no one, not even Sam, until Bobby told him to quit being a pussy and just admit it and ended it there. Dean was lucky Bobby raised him and Sam after John died.  
“You talk to Sam?”  
“Yeah I called him last night” Dean nodded as he took out the plastic fork “missed the kid”  
“Missed him my ass, you’ve not been up north for four years”  
Dean scoffed “that’s cause you’ve been keeping me busy”  
“Yeah well, business is business”  
That is when Dean caught the look, he started to chuckle, putting down the fork  
“Shoulda known… out with it, Bobby”  
“Out with what?”  
“you brought me pie, I must be losing touch, you bring me pie when you want my good side, Sam learnt THAT from you” the hunter said as he put the pie down on Baby’s roof, he wanted to indulge in the rest later when he was done yelling at Bobby.  
“Maybe I just bought you pie”  
“You’re deluded” Dean said pointedly “out with it, old man”  
Bobby growled a little as he watched Dean walk over to the tap for the old fashioned sprinkler and turned it on to water the newly cut grass.  
“You remember Chuck Novak?”  
Dean looked over at Bobby as he straightened from his crouch  
“Yeah, the angel head guy? Remember the name, vaguely remember his face, didn’t he like split years ago?”  
“No one knows what happened to Chuck” Bobby said with a shrug “not even me. Shame. We got on pretty ok”  
Dean raised an eyebrow slightly  
“The Novaks are still pretty well known, thanks to Chuck’s kids, somewhat a celebrity lot”  
“Are they now”  
“Seven children, all pretty known”  
“Seven?” Dean said with some surprise “geez he planted some angel seed around”  
“Anyway” Bobby said carefully “one of those kid angels has got himself in hot water”  
Dean scoffed “yeah? What he do? Parade around spreading his wings a little?”  
“He’s got himself a stalker, a rather nasty one at that” Bobby said seriously  
Dean raised both brows “he’s an angel” the hunter said pointedly “he can just zap it”  
“New law, Dean, just passed, no using obvious powers in front of humans for all party safety”  
Dean blinked “when did THAT pass?”  
“About 6 months ago” Bobby said, following Dean back to his car  
“Well, guess the Senator kept that pretty quiet” the younger man muttered as he bent over to look at the engine  
“Coincidentally, the stalking began around that time”  
“My, really a coincidence” Dean said sarkily  
“Someone definitely wants to kill this angel, considering who he is”  
“So, he just lays low”  
“Can’t, career problems apparently”  
“Career?” Dean asked slightly disbelieving “the angel has a career”  
“Jeez boy, you living under a rock? You’ve never heard of the Novak who sings?”  
Dean frowned and sat on the edge of the hood of his car, wiping his hands  
“Come again?”  
“Castiel Novak” Bobby said, slightly appalled  
“I think I read somewhere that Castiel collects the dolls” Dean shrugged “and that was when I was 14, and since when were you so big on modern music?”  
Bobby looked pretty affronted, much to Dean’s quiet amusement  
“You could not possibly blame me” the older hunter snapped and pulled a rolled up newspaper from his inside pocket “the boy is everywhere”  
Dean took the paper and unrolled it to the front page, revealing a headline reading “Castiel Novak survives fire at the Bel-air state awards”  
The grainy black and white picture was obviously taken during a frenzied fan attack that Dean could barely make the so called famous angel out.  
“Dean” Bobby said “Castiel Novak alone is one of the most famous people in America, he’s won every music award invented, he’s got the number one song in the country right now and he’ll probably be nominated for an Oscar in his very first picture and you want know if he’s the one collecting dolls? Christ!”  
Dean raised his eyes from the page to Bobby giving him a look  
“Bit of a fan, Bobby?”  
“You try working with teen hunters who have his face plastered everywhere and not know who he is and what the term ‘my feels’ mean!” the older man snapped  
Dean grinned a moment and then looked at the headline again “so he’s a singer, voice of angel, how original, so what you want me to do about his apparent stalker issue?”  
“I want to assign you to protect him” Bobby said with exasperation as if it was obvious  
Dean got up from his perch  
“Hell no”  
“Dean, just hear me out”  
“Bobby, I don’t do angel protection, or demon protection, let alone a high celebrity”  
“so you won’t protect Castiel Novak just because he’s in show business?”  
“As listed, Bobby, you know me!” Dean said firmly “I don’t do all the said above”  
Bobby sighed “don’t resist this job, its $2,500 a week”  
Dean scowled “you never were that fussed about the money Bobby”  
“That’s his manager’s talk, I’m convincing you because of Chuck” Bobby said  
Dean didn’t respond except to fiddle with the bolts on his car  
“Dean”  
“There are several good hunters available” Dean said, looking at the older man “have you talked to Jo? Chad? Garth?”  
“Yeah” Bobby said “Garth was interested”  
Dean gave a gesture as if to say ‘well there you go’  
“But Dean, you are the best, we all know it”  
The younger man scoffed “there’s no such thing”  
Bobby tried a different tactic, the truth.  
“Dean… we’re talking about a very frightened angel”  
That caught Dean’s attention a little  
“Believe me I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think this was for real…. He begged me to get you”  
Dean sighed “alright, I’ll come and I’ll look the situation over, if I take it, it’s three thousand a week”  
Bobby raised an eyebrow but nodded with a small shrug “I’ll negotiate that”  
“Good” Dean said, shutting baby’s hood and grabbing his pie “now come in for beer or get off my lawn”


	3. The Angel In Question

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dean heads to the Novak Estate to meet his new charge.

Dean set off towards the city a day and a half later after making sure he was fully ready in case he decided to stay.   
A shameful part of himself was hoping he wouldn’t have to, he had just got home after all, and he really wasn’t looking forward to putting himself on the line for an angel, or an apparent celebrity. Primarily two things on his ‘I will never do this list’.  
The other half of himself battled the whiny kid inside him with Sam like logic (which made it more loathing to him in a way) which decided if Bobby felt concerned at least enough to say the angel was scared then perhaps it was worth a look, and also with the links Bobby had to these particular angels, Bobby was truly asking him a favour and who was he to turn down the old man? Certainly not after all he had done for him.  
Besides, to his everlasting shame, he was intrigued.

It would take him three days travel, three days of mentally preparing himself for his self induced battle, three days to get himself into gear, and three days of deliberately avoiding all things to do with the mention of Castiel Novak.  
Dean always wanted to make up his own mind about his clients and those surrounding them; it gave him a non biased view of the logical reasons behind their dilemma.  
Dean was only ever hired out to those in clear and present danger, when there was actually a case, this way it was somewhat an easy transition from hunting to bodyguarding, he still did the family business, just those who zeroed on a particular target. Not that in the past Dean, and his brother Sam, hadn’t come across things like that before, there were usually wider resources however, and usually more spread out reasons than targeting something for petty revenge.  
He didn’t come across targeted beings too often, so he supposed he shouldn’t complain. But an angel? Why an angel?  
If there was one thing over the years Dean had learnt was that most angels were dicks. He had met angels twice in his lifetime, and both were assholes. One was an angel called Uriel, he had been fifteen years old and he was awed when Bobby told them an angel was coming to the Yard to speak with him.  
Despite his run in at four years old with one, Dean couldn’t help but be intrigued to meet this creature and had of course been disappointed. Uriel was an asshole, who looked down at Dean and his eleven year old brother with disdain.  
The other more recent was when Dean was twenty-five and he met Michael, very briefly, at the yard, the bastard had clearly got into a fight with Bobby when he and Sam burst in, the angel had glared at Dean and disappeared, leaving the chaos in his wake and Bobby coughing from being strangled.  
Dean had vowed never to help Angels after that, especially when he took on the Bodyguard duties.  
And here he was breaking his old rules, it angered him and yet he realised there was nothing much he could do, in a ever changing world where war could break out again, it would be foolish of him to cut the bonds of brotherhood, and even that wording made a sour taste in his mouth.

After settling into the motel near to his destination, he drove upstate in the suburban area and approached the gates of the Novak estate.   
Halting Baby across the road across from the large massive entry (the irony wasn’t lost on him the fact they looked like typical Heaven like gates) he allowed his eyes to sweep over the opening.  
He noted the fact that the gates were indeed closed but unmanned, the walls bordering the area had heavy vegetation and was stretching towards the ground, with no protection or barbed wire on top, and from here Dean could see the estate beyond the rising grounds, so a map route would be rather easy. There were no sigils or obvious signs of supernatural protection.  
Dean raised a slight eyebrow and wondered why there wasn’t a large blinking neon sign saying “Novak Estate right over here! Free for all Angel buffet!”

If there was one thing that Dean prided of his skills, it was his constant vigilance, his heightened awareness, it was his genius and his burden, he noted everything wrong like a tick box in his head, and after making his mental notes about the entrance he turned his car and pulled up in front of the gate.  
As expected there was an intercom on his left that Dean noted with vague amusement that its wires had been fiddled with and was exposed to all, he peered up at the left corner and saw a camera blinking at him, though he realised it was partly covered with vegetation and the gates were definitely not opening.  
He peered at the intercom again with now suspicion; he feared he would be electrocuted if he pressed the rusty looking button.  
Tentatively he reached over and pressed it, which buzzed on touch and thankfully did not return the compliment.  
He waited. No answer  
He pressed the button again  
“Yes?”  
The voice on the other end crackled, transmission was terrible. Dean raised an eyebrow at the voice and leant in a bit towards the intercom.  
“Dean Winchester to see Castiel Novak” he said clearly  
The box crackled “what?” said the voice  
Dean raised an eyebrow again  
“Alexander Bell to see Castiel Novak” he called a bit louder  
The box crackled “have you got an appointment?”  
Dean wasn’t that surprised, clearly the man had not heard, the dictation in his question was not a follow up question, it was another probing question to get a response from him.  
“The atomic number of zinc is 30” he said  
“Alright”  
The gates opened.  
Dean noted how creaky the gates sounded and ticked it on his mental list, then moved his car in up the winding drive through the heavily landscaped grounds  
“Hmf, plenty of hiding places” Dean muttered to himself as he glanced around “damn huge place”  
The road seemed to go on forever and Dean spotted no guards patrolling the roads, no further security stops or anything.  
Eventually the road lead to the house area and as Dean pulled his car beside the huge house that was when he saw another person, a young man polishing a limousine with a cloth with one of his arms bandaged.  
The young man peered as the roaring vehicle parked nearby to him, and he approached, passing a painter’s truck where two painters were unloading equipment from it.  
Dean noted the young man was probably only in his early twenties as he exited the car, locking it, with blue eyes and blonde hair.  
“Can I help you?” he asked politely  
“Are you the guy on the intercom?” Dean asked   
“Uh, no” he blinked  
“My name is Edison, I have an appointment with Castiel Novak”  
The young limo driver looked at him “oh, and that was arranged by?”  
Dean looked at the young man fairly impressed “Mr Novak” he tested  
The young man looked a little bemused but seemed to let it go and smiled politely “go right ahead, Mr Edison” he gestured towards the front door.  
Dean nodded heading towards the stairs “oh” he asked, causing the young man to look at him again “what happened to your arm?”  
The young man glanced at his cast “a dog”  
Dean nodded and headed towards the steps, making a mental note that perhaps there was a guard dog here in need of training further.  
Well that was something.  
Reaching the front door he rang the bell and after waiting just a moment an older lady, Dean assumed to be the housekeeper, appeared  
“Yes?” she asked with a gentle smile  
“Henry Ford here to see Mr Novak”  
“Come in please”  
Dean stepped into the foyer, noticing the openness, he stood at ready to be questioned for his ID, but the housekeeper just smiled  
“I’ll tell you quite honestly Mr Ford, I don’t know where Mr Novak is, did he say he’d be here?”  
Dean smiled demurely “yes”  
“Oh well, come with me, we’ll find him”  
Dean followed the housekeeper to the parlour area, the place by the look of it was being redecorated, people just walked in and out without security nearby.  
“Allow me to go look” she offered, leaving Dean alone.  
Tick box number … Dean had lost count.  
Dean soon left when she’d put him and went in the opposite direction, looking around as painters and decorators walked around freely, oblivious to his presence, and the deeper Dean walked into the house the warmer and more lived-in rooms appeared.   
The hunter stepped into a room that overlooked the pool area, one wall was all glass and opposite that were shelves containing the trophies of Castiel’s career, including a Tony award, three Grammy’s, gold and platinum records, other statuettes and plaques, and photo’s of the Novak family. To Dean’s surprise, the seemed to also do a great deal of charity work which he was acknowledged for.  
Ok so he was pretty famous.  
Dean’s trained hearing suddenly picked up the sounds of a heavy bass musical beat coming from somewhere nearby in the house, he followed the sound, entering the rear of a room that the noise was coming from.   
The room was comfortable but packed with people and props and video equipment, there was lots of activity and a general air of barely-organised chaos. The music blared and a group of six dancers were rehearsing an energetic dance number for a music video directed by their choreographer, a video cameraman circled the dancers, taping them, which appeared on a large screen TV behind them. Several people stood around tending to the video or getting into costume, and Dean saw amongst the chaos that all the chairs faced the far end of the room and it wasn’t immediately apparent to him how many more people were hidden among the cushions.  
Dean stood near a barstool at the back looking around, when he was tapped on the shoulder; upon turning was surprised to see Bobby.  
“You got here before me?” he yelled  
“Left the next day, boy” Bobby bellowed over the noise “only been here a little while”  
Their yelling drew the attention of a large, brawny man, with blue eyes and scruffy beard, when the eyes of the brawny man settled on Dean the eyes flashed a moment making Dean immediately go on edge.  
Vampire  
But to his surprise before he could do anything Bobby put a hand on Dean’s shoulder and signalled to the vampire that everything was alright, the brawny man looked at Dean a moment more, then sat down again beside a blonde man, clearly in his forties who was half watching the dancing and reading, next to him was three other people, nearby another man walked a little, talking on his phone busily discussing a contract with someone at the other end of the line from the subtle words Dean could pick up.  
The music climaxed and abruptly stopped, the dancers held their dramatic final poses for a second then relaxed and cheers erupted from the sofa and laughter  
“Playback everybody!” called the director  
“Come here, Rachel!” yelled a voice gleefully as the choreographer came over to the sofa, leaning down to give the occupier a kiss and Dean heard the laughter again  
“Honey, that’s gonna be great. I love the ending!” the voice gushed  
Dean rolled his eyes very slightly  
“Balthazar” Bobby called to the man on the phone as several overlapping conversations went on amongst everyone else nearby  
“Didn’t you love it? I loved it” said the voice mischievously  
“Bobby” the man on the phone said as he finished his call, stretching over to shake the older man’s hand, then turned his attention to the younger visitor   
“Dean, I presume”  
Dean nodded, shaking the man’s hand, but before he could query, the man was turning to the sofa  
“Cassie” he called  
“Luci, how did you like the number?” the voice asked the older man next to him  
“you like the end routine?” a female voice, a red head perked up from the opposite end.  
“Castiel, you wanna see it back from the beginning or just the ending?” the director called from his seat  
The man named as “Luci” smiled at the choreographer “it was just great, Rachel”  
“I wanna see it all!” the voice yelled triumphantly at the director “Benny? I’ll bet Benny will love it”  
The brawny vampire shrugged and stood to look at Dean as he spoke  
“Ehh” he said, not bothered  
“Don’t worry, Rach, Ben doesn’t appreciate great art” the voice said seductively  
“Cassie, Dean Winchester is-“ Balthazar started  
“Woo it’s gonna be good!”  
“Cassie” Balthazar moved around the couch to face the people occupying it  
“Dean Winchester is here”  
‘Luci’ craned his neck and looked up at Dean curiously, and the louder man stood up, frowning, holding a lollipop.  
“Who’s here?” he asked Balthazar  
Balthazar rolled his eyes at him “Dean Winchester!”  
The lollipop loudmouth shrugged, not getting it.  
“The bodyguard!” Balthazar sighed  
The loudmouth immediately grinned and winked at the choreographer beside him  
“I think Rach should be my bodyguard” he cooed  
Dean gave Bobby a look, it was official, celebrities, nay, angels, were definitely dicks.  
“Castiel, raise your butt out of that couch and meet this man”  
To Dean’s surprise, Balthazar was addressing the only other man left on the couch, hands on hips and then he heard a little sigh  
“Alright” a deep voice murmured and turned “I’m up”  
The man got up, the back of head was dark brown hair and he turned around.  
Dean was struck a little surprised.  
Clearly this was the real Castiel Novak despite his misgivings, and all his addled brain could think of that moment was blue, blue blue. Big blue eyes, striking blue.  
When forcing his brain in that short second to focus he noted Castiel looked around his age, and was very handsome, clearly superstar material.  
For just a second, Dean forgot to breathe.  
“Castiel, Dean” Balthazar’s voice introduced  
Castiel tilted his head slightly as he stared at Dean, but seemed to remember himself and offered his hand after red tainted his cheeks.  
Dean, on autopilot, lifted his and they shook hands in greeting.   
“Nice to meet you”  
“Likewise” Dean responded.  
It was then he became acutely aware all the other occupiers of the couch were staring at him in similar interest.  
The lollipop blonde looked him up and down “you don’t look like a bodyguard” he remarked  
Dean turned his attention to the other man and raised an eyebrow “what did you expect?”  
“I don’t know, tough guy maybe?”  
Next to him, the older man with the book snorted  
“This is my disguise” Dean replied  
“Well, his timing’s good” his verbal sparring partner grinned  
“Dean, this man introducing us is Balthazar Novak, Castiel’s manager and brother” Bobby offered  
Dean nodded  
“These are all our siblings really, apart from two of them” Balthazar continued “that’s Lucifer at the end and the loudmouth is Gabriel”  
“Shoulda guessed” Dean smiled a little  
“Nice to meet you” Lucifer said to Dean and a small wary smile and Dean nodded back.  
“This is Benny Lafitte” Balthazar motioned to the vampire “our family bodyguard”  
Dean looked Benny over a second, this might remark why they didn’t have sigils everywhere, using a vampire as a bodyguard, interesting.  
Balthazar then tapped the head of the red head had had been sitting beside Castiel “and this is Charlie Bradbury, Cassie’s BFF”  
“Hi!” she called cheerfully.  
Dean smiled at her a little, human he noted.  
“And you probably met Samandriel outside, by the car” Balthazar finished  
Dean shrugged a little “yes, I did”  
He calculated that was five Novaks out of seven he had met.  
“Can we get you a drink?” Castiel offered politely  
“Orange juice” Dean replied  
“Straight?” Gabriel grinned  
Castiel gave his brother a look and looked pleadingly at Charlie, who smiled and obligingly went to get Dean’s drink  
“Do you want one?” she asked Bobby  
“Make mine a whiskey” Bobby replied with a nod.  
“Of course”  
“Listen, Deano” Gabriel said, causing the hunter to look at him “this whole thing is Bal’s idea, this sudden obsession with protecting Cassie? Benny’s always handled the security and we’ve done just fine”  
Charlie came to hand the drinks, and the hunters took them from her  
“I think Bal is right though, Gabe, it’s time Castiel took precautions” she interjected  
“Charlie I’m sure Mr Winchester will tell you the number of nut writing fan letters jumps every time Cassie is on the cover of a magazine” Lucifer added  
“Not like this” Bobby intervened, then drank some of his whiskey.  
“Relax guys, he said he’d do it” Gabriel said putting a hand on Castiel’s shoulder “he’s willing to go along as long as we all understand each other”  
“We run a very informal household” Balthazar explained to Dean “we’re all of first name basis, and I’m sure you’ll blend in just fine, you can select whatever alarm systems you want for the house, some kind of improved security for the gate, what else, Cassie?”  
Castiel looked at his brother, thinking a second “well I think I’m safe when I’m here at the house, so I guess the main thing will be when I go out”  
“Agreed!” Balthazar said “Benny will be able to fill you in, Dean, you two will have to work something out, I don’t want both of you falling all over him everywhere he goes”  
Dean looked at the entourage of angels for a while, glancing at Bobby once.  
Bobby knew that look and even pleaded with his eyes  
But nope.  
This was not Dean’s gig.  
“Mr Novak” he addressed Castiel  
“You can call me Castiel” the blue eyed angel responded  
Dean put his glass of orange juice down on a nearby box.  
“There’s been a mistake, a misunderstanding, if you’ll show me the quickest way out, we’ll save each other a lot of trouble”  
When no one responded a moment, Dean didn’t even wait, he headed off, fuming slightly, not seeing the surprised look on Castiel and everyone’s faces.  
“Dean!” Bobby called after him  
Dean ignored him  
“You can go past the pool” Benny called over to his retreating back.  
“Shut up, Benny” Balthazar snapped  
“Nice meeting you” Dean called to the entourage behind him  
“Dean!” Bobby called again  
Bobby and Balthazar made chase to the hunter.  
Dean strode outside the front door and down the steps, hearing the hurried footsteps behind him  
“Dean!” Bobby called  
“Dammit, Bobby” Dean growled once he was outside and heading towards Baby “don’t waste my time!”  
“Dean, wait a minute, I should have told you more. I’m sorry but I was afraid they wouldn’t let him go through with it, I thought I’d let the two of you work it out, come to an understanding” Bobby explained as he hovered near the Impala  
“We did” Dean replied sharply as he unlocked the door and opened it partially  
“Look, I’m sorry, ok, I asked Bobby the favour” Balthazar said breathlessly as he came to the hunter’s side “whether Cassie knows it or not, he needs you”  
“Sure” Dean said sarcastically as he opened the door wider to get in.  
“Dean, you’ve come this far, would you just look at this file?” Bobby said hurriedly “at least that boy, give us some headway”  
Dean paused, cursing Bobby for knowing his inner caring nature, sighing deeply he re-shut the door to his car again, turning towards the hunter.  
“Fine” he replied, jaw tightening.  
Bobby nodded at the angel next to him and Balthazar pulled out a file from his jacket, handing it to Dean.

Inside the file was contained letters of every size and condition, some ragged, some neat and folded, Dean frowned as the cut out words glued to the paper read out the most horrific things, mainly containing the fact Castiel had everything and he was going to die.  
“This is just in the last six months” Bobby explained  
“Have you ever tried having these professionally assessed?” Dean asked as he looked through each one, holding them by the corner of the paper.  
“No” Balthazar responded, wincing as Dean came across one letter that contained a rough drawing of Castiel along with crude markings.  
Dean peered at the picture “these look like important markings”  
“It’s enochian” Balthazar replied “angel language”  
Dean raised an eyebrow and looked at the two men “and out of interest, just how many people learn enochian?”  
“Not many” Bobby said “though they are apparently now trying to get it a listed language in colleges”  
Dean scoffed slightly “I thought it was a hard language to speak”  
“It’s rather akin to Tibetan throat singing, really” Balthazar replied  
“I rest my case” Dean said blankly, turning his attention to the picture “and what does it say?”  
“Similar to the plain English, ‘Castiel you son of a whore, you have everything I have nothing’, death destruction, all the trimmings” Balthazar confirmed “think he might be the one behind the doll?”  
“The explosive doll? Perhaps” Dean replied, recalling the newspaper article.  
“Fun”  
“What does Castiel make of all this?” Dean asked as he studied the picture  
When he got no response, he looked at his two companions.  
“We said there’d been some electrical problem while he was on stage, short circuit” Balthazar explained “look, he doesn’t need that kind of worry right now, it would upset him”  
Dean gave the angel a neutral gaze “what about the police?”  
“There was no reason for the police, no one got hurt”  
“Except your brother, got his hand damaged am I right?” Dean responded  
“He was fine” Balthazar sighed  
Dean’s eyes narrowed, finally Bobby spoke up  
“Bal, I think we should show him the room”  
“What room?” Dean asked  
Balthazar sighed and his shoulders slumped “come with me”.  
Dean decided to oblige them just this once, so picked up the file and followed the two men back inside the house via another door.

Balthazar lead them to the first floor, turning left to a wing, and then opening the first main doors to the left, it revealed a very grand bedroom within.  
Dean looked around the area, taking in the murals, the décor, the kitsch attempt at fornicational splendour, right from the pages of a tabloid layout to be honest.  
“Is this his bedroom?” he asked, slightly disturbed.  
“Yes” Balthazar said cheerfully  
“No, he sleeps in a room next to Charlie’s down the hall”  
Dean, Bobby and Balthazar turned to find Gabriel in the doorway, still sucking on his lollipop  
“Still here Deano?” he quipped  
Dean flicked an eyebrow a moment and then responded “then what’s the significance of this place?” he asked, getting back on track.  
“Bal had this done for a magazine layout, superstars in their boudoirs” Gabriel responded for his brother.  
“Did you see it?” Balthazar asked the younger hunter with a smile  
“No” Dean deadpanned, noting the sigh coming from the angel  
Gabriel scoffed behind them “Cassie never liked it”  
“He didn’t have to like it” Balthazar responded with a whine and turned to Dean with a sigh “we found the letter here” he gestured to the bed.  
Dean frowned, halting his looking around the room “someone was in here?”  
“Well, maybe for a second” Gabriel shrugged, but Balthazar flushed a moment  
Bobby scowled, addressing Dean “someone broke in and masturbated on the bed”  
Dean raised an eyebrow again and then frowned as he considered the behaviour, the actual really difficult problem in front of them; he looked at the now pale and suddenly quiet angels.  
“And Castiel doesn’t know about this either?” he asked  
“Are you kidding?!” Balthazar cried “this would really freak him out!”  
“What do you think?” Bobby questioned, trying to read Dean’s mind.  
“Someone penetrates the house, gets upstairs, and jerks off on the bed…I’d say that qualifies as a problem” Dean responded  
“What kind of problem?” Balthazar asked, agitated “we don’t need this now”  
“This house is wide open” Dean said abruptly  
“Excuse me?”  
“I said this house is wide open” Dean snapped “and you people have no clue what real security is or what it takes to achieve it”  
The angels had the decency to look a bit shamed  
“Fine, I respect what your telling me, tell me how you want to work and I’ll accommodate you best I can” Balthazar replied  
“I can’t protect him” Dean said, then raised a hand to stop the entourage of protests “I won’t be responsible for his safety if he doesn’t know what’s going on”  
“I’ll talk to him, make him understand” Balthazar said  
“No I’ll talk to him!” Gabriel snapped, heading to the door, grousing. Balthazar sighed  
Dean looked at Bobby a moment  
“Well…” Balthazar said “do we have an agreement?”  
Dean considered a moment “fine, no static, I’ll go and collect my things”  
“Excellent!” Balthazar smiled, clapping his hands once “we await your return eagerly”  
Dean gave the angel a look and roughly pushed the file into his chest before stalking off.  
Bobby nodded at Balthazar with a weak smile and followed the exasperated human outside again, towards their cars.  
“So what job’s perfect?” Bobby attempted as Dean got into the car seat and shut his door after he wound down the window, he then started the engine, scowling a little  
“You’re still the bodyguard aren’t you?” Bobby asked  
“Yeah” Dean said, but then turned to Bobby  
“Bobby, if you ever lie to me again, I’ll take you apart”  
Bobby shrugged; he would expect no less from a Winchester.


	4. Intervention

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dean starts to make changes at the Novak Estate and meets some new people to observe

After Dean returned to the mansion a while later with his things, Balthazar had arranged for his accommodation and showed him to one of the guest bedrooms; a comfortable and spacious room with its own TV, stereo and even a fridge, it was rather like a large luxury hotel room, it gave Dean the wonder why anyone might leave it.  
“How do you like it?” Balthazar asked, almost giddy with excitement with his plan coming to fruition.  
Dean looked around approvingly “it will do, thank you”  
“Casa di Novak is your Casa!” the angel grinned, his arms outstretched “feel free to use the kitchens and rooms at will, but knowing you, you’ll probably take over the place anyway!” he laughed  
Dean gave him a slight exasperated look, Balthazar was already making him weary.  
Balthazar cleared his throat and clapped his hands together  
“Well then! I shall float away and go and meet Bobby to finish up the Q and I’s on the contract which I’ll bring later for you to sign”  
Dean put his bag of guns and suitcase on the bed “I will probably need you when I start my inspection of the grounds” he said in all seriousness  
“Well… alright” Balthazar said weakly “I’ll leave you to settle”  
Dean nodded and the manager host took his leave and left the hunter to his thoughts.

Dean went through the routine checks of his items, thinking about the first part of his job, his observations.  
For a start his observations of his charge. The first thing Dean had noticed was the eyes and the rugged handsomeness, and that irritated him, it was immaterial if he thought his client was gorgeous, it was the other things that was much more important, facts and data, things that would clue him in as to how he functioned and thought, this was important so Dean was always a step ahead.   
So he stuck to facts for the moment, he hadn’t acted like a celebrity, he was quiet and seemed like he wanted to be smaller, Dean may have put that down to him being afraid of what was happening, but now he knew that wasn’t the case.  
Perhaps he was just nervous around new people? That perhaps was a given considering his status.  
The hunter was interrupted from his thoughts by a small tapping on the door frame; he looked up and discovered his visitor was the chauffeur, Saman- or something.  
“Good day, um” the younger said timidly “I was asked to bring you this”  
Dean recognised the file from earlier, with additions to its previous items it seemed, he nodded and took the file from the kid  
“Thanks”  
“You’re welcome”  
Dean peered in the file a moment before setting it aside, he had noticed the younger angel hadn’t left or flown away so gave him a side view Winchester universal ‘what?’ look.  
The kid was clever he seemed to catch on and smiled a bit, embarrassed  
“You’re the famous bodyguard and hunter, Dean Winchester”  
Dean refrained from rolling his eyes and just nodded with a little smile  
“That I am, well, not sure about famous, infamous perhaps”  
“Why did you say your name was Edison?” the angel asked curiously  
Dean gave a wry smile as he pulled open his weapons duffel bag  
“I wanted to see how hard it was to get in” he admitted  
The younger angel looked sheepish “and it wasn’t was it?”  
“Nope” Dean replied as he opened another bag and pulled out some things to put away, then he noticed the kid flexing his fingers, easing the muscles from his hands. The hunter rummaged in his bag and pulled out a small tub of ointment  
“Here” he said and tossed it.  
The angel had good reflexes and caught it  
“Put that on your arm, it’ll help the ache”  
“Oh, thank you”  
“No problem, Saman-“ Dean paused, trying to remember how to pronounce it  
The angel smiled “it’s Samandriel, don’t worry, lots of people have a hard time pronouncing it except my family”  
Dean nodded, looking apologetic “I would call you Sam but uh, that’s my little brother’s name” he smiled proudly, he always did when he mentioned his clever brother.  
His visitor smiled brightly “you have a brother too? Do you have older brothers?”  
“Nope”  
“Oh, then you and Castiel are the somewhat same, he is my closest older brother”  
Dean nodded, remembering somewhat the hierarchy of the Novaks  
“You could just call me Alfie” the angel shrugged  
Dean smiled, bemused “Alfie?”  
“My middle name is Alfred, I quite like it, I don’t mind”  
“Alfie it is then” Dean smiled as he opened the chest of drawers to put clothes in.  
“So, Alfie” he then said and nodded at the hand “a dog?”  
Alfie had the decency to look sheepish “well, I couldn’t explain at the time”  
Dean nodded, rearranging the fold of his socks “this sort of thing happen often?” he queried  
“Oh no” Alfie looked perturbed “never like this! That exploding doll came out of nowhere, well, except the letters”  
Dean frowned “so all of you know about the letters except Castiel?”  
“Balthazar felt it best” Alfie sighed “he’s just trying to protect Castiel, that’s all”  
“He scare easily?”  
“Not that I’ve known him totally, but then Castiel has always been a good brother to me, if anything I was the one who was scared” Alfie laughed then looked nostalgic “He would sing to me when I got scared, sing in that beautiful voice, a talent he received so well” he sighed  
Dean felt his lip tug upwards a moment “and you? Not into showbusiness?”  
“Me? I couldn’t yodel” Alfie laughed “but Castiel, he was just incredible, everyone in the room would listen when he sang, just go still, I was so lucky, he would sing to me much more, he loves to sing, I guess that is why my brothers urged him to go out there”  
Dean nodded “so what’s your thing?  
Alfie grinned “monster trucks”  
Dean nearly dropped his socks “monster trucks?” he repeated  
Alfie nodded enthusiastically “I love driving, it was one of the things I really took to since The Fall, I entered a few races but, I seem to need more practise, then my brothers got scared and stopped me, I knew it was because they feared for my safety”  
“Yeah but you’re an angel”  
“Doesn’t mean I cannot get hurt beyond repair”  
Dean nodded, it was true, since The Fall the genetic makeup of angels changed, they were more fragile now, more human, they could be killed in a similar way, they kept some angelic abilities but not all of them.  
“I love cars” Alfie said, interrupting Dean’s train of thought “your car, it’s amazing!”  
Dean grinned “she’s a beauty ain’t she?”  
“Wonderful, and so well kept” Alfie smiled “she must go fast”  
“At a push she can do real fine” Dean laughed “I bet you can fill up a whole day washing cars and driving Castiel around town”  
“Well” Alfie shrugs “it’s my job”  
“A replacement for your monster trucking, huh?”  
“I believe so, Balthazar said that means I could still drive and well, for me I would also be taking Castiel to places where he could share his wonderful voice to the world, so to me, I am content, it serves purpose to two of the things I love the most”  
Dean smiled fondly, he liked this kid, he was honest and open, and clearly cared about his brother.  
“Well, I’m gonna add to your duties, Alfie” he said as he put his socks away in the drawer and closing it  
“Oh?”  
“You are my new assistant” Dean said, removing three boxes of cartridges from his suitcases and starting to fill out his Beretta  
“Assistant?” Alfie echoed, confused, eyeing the gun “I don’t understand”  
Dean loaded his gun and gave a half smug smile to the young angel  
“Alfie, I’ve spent a lot of time guarding people” he said “and I’ve found one thing to be true… no matter how incompetent the assassins, no matter how much they miss their targets by, there’s one person who always gets hit”  
“Who?” Alfie asked  
Dean smirked “the cocky angel chauffeur”  
Alfie considered this a moment  
“Now if you wanna regain some of your racing loves in a limo, then I can teach you that, at the same time, you’ll be helping me keeping your brother alive, what you say?”  
Alfie looked at Dean for just half a second “I’ll do it!” he said, squaring his shoulders  
“Good man” Dean said, coming over and patting the angel on the shoulder  
“Does… does Balthazar know I’m being… employed?”  
“All I’m doing is making some changes for Castiel’s safety, things you’re gonna need long after I’m done here, ok?”  
Alfie nodded “alright”  
“Good”

The next morning, Dean set to work on the first most urgent thing; making the area safe. The change of the estate had to begin and Dean would turn this place around if it was the last thing he did. He walked around the grounds with Alfie at his side, pointing out the things to be done while Alfie took notes on a pad, feverously writing  
“I need these stone walls to made clear of all foliage, anything that gives the perp leverage to get inside the walls” Dean pointed out as Alfie scribbled  
“See these hedges?”  
“Yes, I see them”  
“Let’s take in the entire length of the border, this way we tighten it all” Dean said and moved on, the angel hot on his heels.  
Dean eventually got to near the front and was just looking around as Alfie made notes about the garage when he felt eyes on him, looking up he saw the red haired human, Charlie, watching him with excited glee, she grinned wide and waved to him.  
Dean nodded in salutation, turning briefly to see how Alfie was keeping up, and still feeling those eyes looked again.  
Charlie was soon distracted as a familiar dark haired male approached her side, it was Castiel, he looked fondly at the red haired and clearly had asked what she was looking at, Charlie enthusiastically pointed down at Dean and the angel singer turned to him too.  
Dean pulled his gaze away, glad in a manner he was wearing sunglasses, so it wasn’t obvious he was watching in the corner of his eye.  
Castiel looked perturbed and touched Charlie on the arm, saying something and lead her purposefully away, Charlie didn’t look too happy about it though.  
Dean decided not to think anything of it for now.  
The inspection moved into the interior of the house next, with the housekeeper Dean and Alfie, pointing out several changes to be made, locking mechanisms needed to be added, security lights, cameras.  
He was just checking out a door when he heard music again, and he turned towards it “what’s that?” he asked Alfie  
“Oh, that’s coming from the workout room, so it’s probably Anna, she came back early this morning from a friend’s house that was she seeing for a few days”  
Dean counted her the sixth Novak and nodded “go find out where Balthazar is will you?” he asked Alfie  
The young angel complied and Dean made his way to the small room at one end of the pool house.

Inside said pool house was another redhead, but with straighter locks and a darker shade of the colour, and much curvier than Charlie, and despite coming home apparently from the early hours was dancing vigorously to the music.   
Dean watched a moment at her graceful moves and felt loathed to interrupt her session, but he needed to check out the room and make a tick box about all Novaks. He approached the door and opened it slowly, knocking a little as he did.  
The angel turned and seeing her visitor, seemed unfazed and even smiled a little as Dean entered, breathing heavily with the exertion of her dancing  
“Hi” Dean smiled “sorry I’m-“  
“The bodyguard, Dean Winchester, I know” Anna replied as she picked up a towel  
Dean gave a non committal shrug as Anna shut off the music.  
“I’m sorry to disturb you” Dean added  
“That’s alright, it’s an excuse for me to rest” she smiled, dabbing herself with the towel “you can look around if you like”  
Dean nodded in thanks and peered around the room “this used often?”  
“Only by me, it’s my private place really”  
“I see, where do your brothers work out?”  
Anna laughed “I don’t think any of them do except Castiel, he jogs”  
Dean nodded again, looking at Anna and noticing she had blue eyes as well, just not terribly blue like Castiel, there were only small parts of family resemblance in each sibling, but then Dean supposed it didn’t always work the same with humans.  
He cleared his throat and looked around again  
“Do you lock it?”  
“No, why would I do that?”  
“Some people do with a personal space” the hunter shrugged  
“Oh, I see, then no, it is accessible to all”  
“Hmm” Dean said, peering at the opposite wall for a moment wondering if it was worth using concealing sigils.  
“So, you think Castiel might be in real trouble?” Anna asked  
Dean gave a shrug “it seems to be worth looking at”  
“I hear you are the best hunter and bodyguard known”  
Dean gave a wry smile “well, that would be others talking, I know much better hunters”  
Dean then glanced at some photos on the wall to the right, walking closer he noticed some were of Anna from years ago, some show her performing with a band  
“My own ego wall, no platinum records” Anna smiled, walking over towards him.  
Dean laughed a tiny bit “you perform?” he asked, gesturing to a picture of Anna and Castiel singing together “or with you and Castiel?”  
Anna shrugged “when I was younger, I put a little band together, we played high school dances, stuff like that, even got a record contract, we released a few songs and I think we were on the brink of break through, then one night I got Castiel to join the act, as you can imagine he was quite a little entertainer” she laughed ruefully and looked at the photo “even then…he had a way of stopping the show…so I kind of… quit” she shrugged and smiled at Dean “professionally anyway”  
“You never went back?” Dean asked curiously  
“It was pretty obvious who the star in our family was” Anna replied with a little smile  
Dean gave a little smile in return   
“My brothers were so excited”  
“I can see that” Dean added “they seem to be behind him”  
“Castiel was always the quiet one, but he was our Father’s favourite, we could tell, he was clever yet quiet, Balthazar and Gabriel always felt the need to look after him, and Lucifer and I always watched his back, Castiel would project that on Samandriel, and now his best friend, Charlie”  
Dean nodded, understanding “well, I’ll let you get back to your exercise” he said as he headed to the door “I might get a camera fitted outside facing the door” he gestured  
“As long as it’s not facing inside” Anna said “sometimes I change in here too”  
Dean looked over his shoulder at Anna, who gave him a small teasing smile.  
Dean stepped outside, closing the door and raising an eyebrow at the obvious invite.

Dean spent the rest of the afternoon getting Alfie to learn how to drive at high speeds in a limo, currently he was teaching the kid how to spin the vehicle in a 180 degree skid turn, sending up clouds of dust everywhere they went.  
“Ok keep speed, keep speed, and brake!” Dean commanded calmly as he helped Alfie turn the steering wheel.  
Alfie hadn’t said a lie about his monster truck days, he was a fast learner and eager to try anything Dean dished out, and Dean couldn’t help but lavish him with well earned praise, their antics caught the attention of some of the staff who either were perturbed by the lesson or intrigued.

A couple of days passed as Dean motored into having the property changed, until one afternoon Balthazar called him over.  
“Castiel has a lunch meeting”  
Dean raised an eyebrow “alright, when”  
“Like now”  
“You couldn’t have mentioned this beforehand?”  
Balthazar shrugged as he walked off, answering his phone.  
Dean sighed and headed to the front of the house. Alfie was wiping down the limo, with Gabriel beside him  
“Deano! Ivy baby, lunch date”  
“So I’m told, is it important?”  
“It’s just lunch, dude” Gabriel grinned.  
Dean gave the angel a look and turned to the door as Castiel, Charlie, Anna and Benny exited  
“Good Afternoon, Dean” Castiel greeted  
Dean almost fell over, since his arrival, Castiel had barely said a sentence to him.  
“Good Afternoon”  
“Come on, Cassie, lets rock” Gabriel chirped as he bundled into the limo.

During the lunch, which turned out to be just a family lunch excuse to get out, Dean stood dutifully at the side, not far from Castiel and the table. Benny was closer, talking to them now and again, stealing food from the plates and looking around as well at times.  
Dean made sure Benny’s supposed side of guarding was watched as well.

As they completed their lunch, the Novaks wandered out as the pair of guards waited by the door. Just as they were going through the door, a little girl darted into their paths, eyes shining with joy at Castiel, holding a paper and pen.  
Dean swept his eyes over the girl, checking for obvious signs of demonic possession and then at the mother who was hovering nearby. Castiel glanced at Dean once, but when Dean didn’t react he smiled at the little girl and signed an autograph.  
Dean watched as the mother gave a camera to Anna to take a picture of which she quietly complied. Once that was achieved the mother and daughter took their leave, and Dean checked the area again before the remaining family headed on  
“I am surprised you didn’t, as the phrase goes, plug them” Castiel said to Dean with a small smile  
“No obvious signs of possession” Dean merely replied as his eyes swept the area. It seemed Gabriel and Charlie had got into the limo already, with Benny standing by the car looking bored.  
Dean looked around again as Castiel and Anna got into the limo  
“Hey, lets go” the vampire said impatiently to the hunter.  
Dean gave the area another quick look, his hairs were standing on end, something prickling that something was up, nevertheless he got into the front seat next to Alfie and Benny.  
“Ok, Alfie, lets go” Dean instructed, missing the rolled eyes from Benny.  
Dean kept his eyes on his side mirror as Alfie drove, behind them the Novaks talked and giggled.  
Dean was far more interested in the sudden appearance of a dark coloured vehicle which was slowly staying in his shot.  
He then felt Benny lean towards him  
“Let me set you straight on a few things” said the southern drawl in his ear “for starters, I love this man, what I do for him, I do for love, I’m not some hired fucking gun who is out to make his life miserable”  
Dean watched the side mirror intently as Benny spoke, the car was still behind them and Dean’s senses were tingling.  
“I do things the way he likes, what they like, their happiness is everything to me” Benny continued  
“No problem” Dean said, never taking his eyes away “I’d like to know how you handle things, Benny”  
“I handle things fine, Dean, you watch me and you’ll learn something, brother”  
Dean glanced at Alfie for a second “turn left” he instructed.  
Alfie it seemed had noticed as well, as his wide eyes darted to his rear view mirror  
“Is that him?” he asked nervously.  
Dean shook his head, indicating he wasn’t sure, Benny beside him frowned  
“Hey, what’s going on?”  
“Shortcut” Dean replied, watching as the vehicle followed them into the turn  
Benny tensed beside him  
“What’s going on exactly?” Gabriel asked from the back  
“New kid is jumping” Benny explained to the family  
“He’s not, something is off” Alfie defended  
“What the hell, Deano, what’s up now?” Gabriel sighed  
“Sh-should we be worried?” Charlie asked nervously, gripping onto Castiel as if someone was going to steal him.  
“Calm down, I am sure it’s just routine” Anna said logically  
“Dean?” Castiel asked worriedly, but earnestly.  
They were approaching the estate and everyone seemed to hold their breath very slightly.  
“Alfie, slow down” Dean instructed, eyes on the mirror  
“You want me to do a one-eighty?” Alfie asked, gripping the wheel  
“No, just slow down”  
Alfie did as he was told, and sure enough as Dean suspected, the car behind made a sudden tire-screeching left turn, disappearing behind them towards the estate.  
Dean leapt out, surprising everyone  
“Alfie, take them to the house” he instructed firmly before he took off, jumped a fence and started racing across the property lands.  
“Dean!” Castiel called out worriedly as he opened a window to see him run up the hill, but he could do no more as Alfie put on the gas and drove off quickly to get to the house, while the spectators inside watched open mouthed as the hunter raced at inhuman speed across the grounds until they could see him no more.

Dean ran like the legions of hell were behind him, eyes firmly on the dark vehicle through the trees, trying to grab a chance to see the licence plate, as Dean approached however, it started to accelerate and race off again, seemingly frightened by the hunter’s appearance.  
It spurned Dean on as he broke out into a full run towards the other end of the property  
“Son of a bitch!” Dean exclaimed as he leapt over his first hedge, then two others, never stopping, and paying no heed to the rips of his clothes and the scratching of his skin, he pushed his way through tropical vegetation and scurried down a steep wooden slope towards the road below, glimpsing the vehicle now and then through it.  
As Dean managed to get ahead slightly he leapt over the wall and onto the road, taking most of the brunt of his fall onto his knees, before rolling readying for further flight. The car missed him by inches and didn’t stop and was gone in just a breath.  
Dean swore loudly, panting a little  
“Bastard”  
But he wasn’t stupid. If it was going to come back, it would soon.


	5. A Person Of Interest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Novaks cope with the changes in their lives and Castiel contemplates his position.

The high pitch of the drill had been going on for hours. Gabriel sat at the table rubbing the rips of his fingers in circles on his temples. Beside him, Balthazar sat on his phone, making deals; Anna was sitting across from Gabriel and reading the newspaper.  
“Father preserve me” Gabriel groaned “I want to take that drill and shove it up his ass”  
Anna eyed Gabriel a moment, seemingly tuning out the noises around them  
“What?!” Balthazar yelled into the phone, a finger in his year “repeat that!”  
Gabriel almost went crossed eyed as the drilling started again.  
Castiel and Charlie joined the table, Charlie twisting her head around Balthazar to see what the man on the ladder was up to.  
RRRRRRRRRRRRRLLLLLL! Gave the ever pitching drill  
“Oh, MAN ALIVE SHAAAADUP!” Gabriel screeched, golden eyes blazing  
“Gabriel! Shut up” Balthazar snapped “I can’t hear what Ezio is saying”  
“Ezio? What are you calling him for?” Castiel asked  
Balthazar waved Castiel off “tour dates”  
Castiel looked at his brother and manager exasperated “Balthazar, I’ve not even started on the new record, let alone organising a world tour”  
Balthazar rolled his eyes a bit “face making, Cassie”  
Castiel growled a bit, grabbing some toast, ignoring how Gabriel face planted onto the table after the drilling paused a moment.  
“I hate to tour, it’s tiring and puts you out of sync of your body, and aches and pains, I suffer, suffer badly” Castiel said louder than normal in case the drilling would begin again.  
Balthazar’s mouth dropped, looking absolutely scandalised, panicking and talking into the phone  
“What? What? No! hahah! Ez, baby! He didn’t mean that, hahaha, hang on”  
The manager shoved the phone towards Castiel’s face, holding it up  
“Take it back!” he hissed through hushed tones “this man saves us a bloody fortune!”  
Castiel gave his brother a dead panned look, glancing at the phone  
Balthazar glared at the singer “now!”  
“Castiel, that wasn’t very kind, Ezio has always made your touring as comfortable as possible” Anna said, turning a page of her newspaper  
“Gabe!” Balthazar hissed  
“Take it back, Cassie, after all we follow you around the world too” Gabriel said into the table  
“What? No, nooo, I’m still here, Ez!” Balthazar chirruped back into the phone with a fake laugh “he’s such a kidder, no no, wait, you can hear it”  
The older Novak put on the speaker and pointed at it and then pointed at Castiel with an obvious glare of ‘fix this!’  
Castiel looked heavenward a moment, before putting on a fake smile  
“I LOVE to tour!” he said excitedly  
Charlie snorted beside him  
“See Ez! What a joker! Hahah, yeah, yeah… you know it baby! I think the new record has to have a snazzy name!”  
With that the manager wandered from the table to talk some more  
Charlie giggled and took some toast “you still look great on stage”  
“I still dislike it”  
RRRRRRRRRRRRRLLLLLL! Went the drill as the man fitted another security camera  
“Oh for-“ Gabriel growled “SHUT UP! JUST SHUT UP!”  
Lucifer entered the room, holding his own newspaper  
“Luci, help me” Gabriel pouted, rubbing his head “I’m dying, I feel my brain is going to fall out”  
“What’s exactly new?” Lucifer asked, taking a seat between Castiel and Gabriel  
The siblings smiled, apart from the trickster, who glared at his older brother  
“Just fix me!”  
Lucifer sighed, put his hand on Gabriel’s head, his hand glowed a moment with his grace until Gabriel looked extremely relieved.  
“Oh gee, thank you”  
Lucifer rolled his eyes and eyed the man drilling “I see our resident hunter-man still has this place becoming Alcatraz”  
“Seriously!” Gabriel growled, getting up “I feel like I’m being watched everywhere!”  
“It’s caution” Castiel said, putting jam on his toast  
“It’s disruptive” Anna piped in  
“It’s ludicrous” Lucifer said as he peered outside the doors behind Anna “speak of the wonder that is me”  
A glance from the party noted Dean was outside supervising the changes to the area.  
“Pfft” Gabriel said as he got up and moved to the bar, grabbing things from the fruit bowl  
“It’s totally unnecessary, and I am going to make a smoothie”  
“I’ll have one” Anna said  
“Then come cut up fruit, you lazy fap”  
Anna sighed and got up to help her brother.  
Alfie wandered into the room next to grab some toast  
“Get the car, we have to go to Venus” Balthazar said as the younger Novak appeared  
“Oh uh, the car is getting serviced”  
“I never organised that” Balthazar said  
“Dean did, he also said we weren’t going to Venus anymore”  
The Novaks turned to their younger brother, shocked  
“What?!” Gabriel yelled  
“But…. I didn’t get the memo” Balthazar said  
“That’s it” Gabriel snapped “I want him gone!”  
Castiel frowned “what?”  
“What for?” Charlie added  
“He’s through messing with our lives” Gabriel yelled as he flung cut up fruit into a blender  
“This is ridiculous, it’s like he’s keeping us all prisoner” Lucifer added  
Balthazar sighed and moved to the patio door  
“Dean! Would you come in here a minute?”  
“Did you know he was nuts?” Gabriel snapped towards Balthazar as he came back into the area  
“Do you know who couldn’t get past the gates yesterday? Robin Leach, that’s who” Lucifer added “you think that’s funny? The man talks to twenty million people and he can’t even get in here”  
“Did he have an appointment?”  
Everyone turned towards the door as Dean entered, all seriousness and hands in his jeans  
“Dean” Balthazar said wearily “what is this about brunch at Venus? Cassie has been going there every Sunday for the last five years”  
“I don’t want him doing anything he’s always done” Dean replied with a small shrug  
“I don’t want him doing anything he’s always done” Gabriel mimicked “the guy’s a fanatic!”  
Dean raised an eyebrow  
“So are the guys he’s protecting Cassie from” Charlie piped up nervously  
Gabriel glared at her “well EXCUSE ME if I don’t faint”  
“Think of Castiel-“ Charlie tried again, but she was drowned out by the start of the blender, a clear ‘shut up’ from the trickster angel.  
Castiel put a hand to his face, embarrassed while Dean looked coolly on at the family. Finally Gabriel stopped the blender, only to have Lucifer pipe in  
“Do you know he’s got the phones bugged?” he asked Balthazar  
“Oh, heaven’s sake, Bal” Anna cried  
“Maybe he gets off listen to our calls, all that heavy breathing” Gabriel sneered  
“What do you want from my life?!” Balthazar yelled at his siblings, interrupting  
“I want some peace around here!” Gabriel snapped  
“That’s right” Lucifer agreed  
Balthazar looked pleadingly at Dean, opting to keep the peace.  
Dean eyed Castiel a moment who was sitting at the table quietly and staring at the toast rack  
“We’re almost done” he responded, nodding his head towards the man on the ladder  
“And Cassie should be able to eat brunch with his friends” Gabriel added  
Dean shrugged “go on Tuesday this week”  
Lucifer stared at Dean as if he were a Martian “Tuesday… morning… brunch” he stretched out “where did you find this guy?!” he snapped at Balthazar  
In retaliation, the blender went on again, with a glare to match.  
Dean turned back to go outside with an ‘ooookay, crazy angels’ look on his face, followed by Alfie who was meekly avoiding the wrath of his siblings.  
“Dean!” Balthazar called from the door, making the hunter turn  
“Is the car going to be ready for Cassie to go shopping tomorrow?”  
“It should be”  
“Good, my assistant Meg is going with you”  
Dean raised an eyebrow “you have an assistant?”  
Balthazar shrugged, a tad offended “Dean, I’m a very busy man, a very busy man”  
Dean shook his head and took off to continue his securing the house.

As promised, Dean and Alfie made sure the car was ready by early morning the following day; Dean exited the front door to make the checks when he noticed a dark haired female leaning against the car.  
Dean of course didn’t trust new faces that he hadn’t memorized around the grounds for the last couple of weeks.  
The dark haired female, wearing jeans, boots, blouse and jacket made eye contact with him.  
If there was one advantage to The Fall, it was the benefits of being a hunter with an anti-possession tattoo that had been blessed by many sigils.  
Focusing his gaze on the new face as he always did, Dean watched.  
The woman’s eyes turned black.  
Dean moved like lightning.  
“This place is defended” he commanded in enchocian, making the demon flinch at the holy language, she growled “hunter” she cursed, and threw a punch.  
It was instinct of all demons when in the presence of a hunter first class like Dean.  
But Dean merely defended himself against her, blocking her punch, and pushing her back  
“Stand down and you can go free” he commanded again  
This demon was particularly venomous and snarled at him “go to hell, cutie” she said, punching him in the face  
Dean avoiding the second blow and stepped to the side as she kicked out  
“stand down and cause no further harm and you can go” he commanded again, the second warning, this would be the last time by the law the demon could back down where Dean would cause her no further harm.  
“Dean!”  
Dean’s hearing picked up the voice of Castiel  
“Dean wait!” Charlie cried as well.  
Now Dean had to defend his charge. Immediately his blade was out and he stared his opponent down  
“Last warning!” he growled, pushing the demon by the throat against the limo behind her.  
“Dean wait!”  
Castiel was beside him, hand on his shoulder “it’s Meg!”  
Dean frowned but did not take his eyes away from the demon, nor remove his defence.  
“No no no no, bad” Charlie said, coming on Dean’s other side “she’s on our side”  
Dean swallowed a retort that barely any demons were on anyone’s side.  
He was very aware of Castiel being so vulnerable and so close to this demon, every instinct told him no  
“Dean” Castiel said firmly, but not angrily “let her go”  
Dean waited a few seconds before letting go of the grip he had on the female demon, stepping back and lowering his blade, but never losing eye contact.  
Meg snarled a bit, breathing and rubbing her neck, eventually the standoff calmed enough for the black eyes to disappear  
“What the hell is a hunter first class doing here?” she demanded from the pair either side of Dean.  
“He’s my new bodyguard” Castiel explained sheepishly  
Meg eyed Dean with a smirk “oh really? So Bal got you after all, nice to know he listens to me”  
Dean raised an eyebrow “listens to you?”  
“When he mentioned having someone for Castiel and probably something experienced like a hunter, I encouraged him to go straight to Singer and get the best, looks like he took it on board, looks like he went straight to the very top of the Holy Circle of Hunters, judging by your many layers of clothing and impertinent good looks, you must be a Winchester”  
Dean scoffed a second, putting the blade away “a demon in employment of an angel, I missed the flight of pigs, obviously”  
“Oh look a hunter calling the kettle black” Meg responded drily “you should be giving me royalties for singing your primp praises for blood lust, it’s keeping you in plaid and Jack Daniels”  
Dean just gave her a look.  
Castiel moved his eyes from Dean to look at Meg “Meg, are you hurt?”  
“Nothing I can’t handle, Clarence, I’ve been fighting off hunters for years”  
Castiel turned to Dean “Balthazar mentioned Meg, yesterday, Dean, what did you do that for?”  
Dean looked at the angel “he didn’t really mention his coffee-getter was a demon”  
“You’re that surprised with Benny running around?” Charlie scoffed, making the hunter roll his eyes  
“Speaking of who” Meg said, eyeing Dean up and down “where’s the toothpicker? He dust out?”  
“No, Benny is still with us” Charlie replied “it’s just Cassie has run into some nutjob trouble, Dean is gonna find him”  
“I see” Meg smirked “what’s the matter Winchester? Hunts a little boring since the treaty?”  
“I’m still ganking your kind more often than not, thanks very much” Dean replied dryly, challenging her with his steeled look.  
“Is this the part you tell me you’re watching me?” Meg cooed “it will soak my nether regions”  
“That would be clichéd, let’s just say I will cut of your head if you so much as do anything funny, rules be damned”  
“You could go to jail for that, hunter”  
“I have a charge to look after”  
“Is that a threat?”  
“Not if it’s my job, everyone here is in the same boat, you’re not exactly a special, sorry” Dean retorted  
Castiel sighed and Charlie turned from one to the other, invested in the comebacks like she was watching Star Trek.  
Dean was pretty sure Meg was going to retort, but Alfie’s arrival sprung things into motion  
“Well, got mine” Meg smirked “so bodyguard, here comes a nutjob trouble of shopping”  
“So I’m told” Dean said, opening the door and flicking his eyes to Castiel as if to say ‘get in the car’.  
Castiel sighed and got in, Dean and Meg eyed each other as the demon smirked and got inside.  
Dean slammed the door behind her and turned to Alfie  
Alfie had obviously sensed something so asked “what did I miss?”  
Charlie sighed “I gotta go, computers to sort for those special effects, don’t keep fighting Meg or Bal will get mad”  
Dean just looked at the red head exasperated before going around to get in the front  
“Dean fought with Meg?” Alfie asked Charlie, open mouthed  
“Yeah! It was weird…and a little epic” the geek gushed  
“Oh man” Alfie grinned  
“I’ll fill you in laters, go on, and try and survive”

Alfie drove the three to a shopping precinct in the valley, the area wasn’t glitzy or glamorous, more downscale, which surprised Dean a little, the presence of Meg still made his hair stand on end but nevertheless he did not complain as he stood in the shop as Meg and Castiel walked around the bargain rails, moving along racks of discarded clothing and talking.  
“Lou you got too much great stuff” Meg said to the shop owner wryly  
The owner of the shop laughed “take it all, girl”  
Dean stood in the middle of the store, not watching the pair but rather the shop and the street outside where Alfie was waiting in the limo.  
“Try this on Clarence” Meg instructed  
Castiel made a small noise “I don’t know” he sounded unsure  
“If you don’t come back with anything, Bal will just send you back, go”  
Castiel sighed as she pushed him towards the makeshift changing booth, pushing back the curtain. Meg turned to Dean who had glanced their way a moment and smirked  
“You wanna come in here with Castiel? Just to be safe?” she said  
“Meg” Castiel hissed  
Dean glanced at the teasing demon once before resuming his surveillance of the shop.  
“Sorry Dean” Castiel said, causing the hunter to look his way again a moment  
“You probably won’t believe this, but Meg has a reputation for being a bitch”  
Dean was slightly amused to hear such profanity come from an angel, but even more to hear Meg give Castiel a look  
“What? You get known for being a certain way, a way people think you are, and pretty soon you get like that, can’t help it” Castiel explained, moving back the curtain and starting to change  
“Whatever, Clarence” Meg muttered as she scrolled through a new rail “looks like your bodyguard don’t agree”  
Castiel peered over the curtain to Dean  
“You don’t think so?” he asked the hunter  
“You can be as you choose to be, it’s an act of discipline sometimes, but it can be done” Dean responded, eyeing youths outside.  
Castiel looked at him a moment, then stepped out of the changing rooms to check the mirror  
“Is that why you never stay with one of your clients? They too undisciplined or is it your afraid you’ll start to care about them?” he asked  
“That’s right” Dean replied without interest  
“Oh god, a hallmark moment” Meg said coming over to see what Castiel was wearing and holding something else “does he ever answer straight?”  
Dean smirked just a little “he’s too clever for me, I can’t keep up” he replied dryly  
“You’re not the type to mix business with pleasure are you?” Meg asked  
“No I’m not”  
“Good saves the rest for me” Meg said looking at Castiel in the mirror  
Dean looked at them a moment then turned back to watching elsewhere  
“Go in there and try this, and this” Meg shooed the angel to the changing room, the latter obeying without question.  
The demon hovered by the curtain and then turned to Dean  
“Grab that would you?” she said, motioning to an outfit on the rack just behind her.  
Dean looked at her a moment then out the window again  
“I’m here to keep him alive, not help him shop”  
Meg rolled her eyes and stepped over to what she wanted, ripping it off the rail  
“Gee thanks”

Castiel lay in his bed wide awake; he hadn’t been tired when Gabriel suggested he go to bed to get his beauty sleep for the big event for the following evening. He always tended to listen to his brothers because it was usually for his own good, but he felt more than stupid for going to Dean at 9pm and saying he was going to bed.  
The hunter had looked slightly bemused, raising a quirk of an eyebrow, green eyes sparkling in slight amusement as Balthazar cooed in agreement with Gabriel and Castiel’s sleep routine.  
Nevertheless, the hunter had escorted him to his room, checked inside and said his goodnight before trudging back downstairs.  
Castiel sighed, not only was he not tired; he couldn’t get his bodyguard off his mind.  
He was pretty sure that Dean was like the rest of his family, his feelings and thoughts didn’t matter much as long as he did his job and Castiel did what he was told, and in the store today he had made it clear he was there for one purpose only and then he would leave.  
But Castiel had for the first time a great desperation for Dean to stay. He just…liked him around, he felt safe, from what he wasn’t quite sure, but maybe the things he didn’t speak about, it wasn’t easy being him, but he didn’t feel obligated to explain himself.  
Castiel turned on his side and exhaled, curled up and feeling sorry for himself, he hadn’t felt an attraction to anyone but Dean, and he was way out of his league. From what he had seen so far, Dean was an astute hunter, took his job very seriously, was clever and calculating and took crap from no one.  
He was a beautiful human, tall, with deep green eyes and refreshing little freckles across his nose, and lips that made the fallen angel certainly feel some less than holy thoughts.  
But it wouldn’t do to fantasise about his bodyguard, as gorgeous as he was, it would just lead for Castiel’s heart to break, he doubted he cared much about Castiel further than business.

But he really couldn’t sleep right now, so he got up and decided he would get something to drink to perhaps encourage him to.  
Upon heading downstairs he realised that the place was quiet, which meant everyone was in bed, it gave Castiel a sense of relief.  
Padding down to the empty kitchen, he poured himself a juice and drunk it in one go before pouring another.  
That was when he heard it.  
Music  
Or to be precise, one of his.  
Castiel frowned and glanced at the clock, it was 1am.  
Holding his glass and following the noise, he recognised it was coming from one of the living rooms. Castiel wasn’t usually an overly curious and nosy type of person, nor narcissistic, but one does wonder who is listening to his own music in the early hours of the morning.  
Still he approached cautiously, slowly until he got to the living room, and through the French doors he saw the only occupier of the dark room was Dean himself.  
Castiel’s eyes flickered from the chair Dean was sitting in to the TV which to his slight mortification was showing an old music video of his. Returning his gaze to the only viewer he noted that around Dean was a couple of piles of discs and DVD’s, all of them were Castiel’s albums, copies of all his videos, and some from Balthazar’s private collection.   
Dean was alone in the room, lit only by the glow of the TV, his jacket was removed and he sat in his t-shirt and jeans, on his lap was a notepad and a pen in his fingers, some notes were on the pad. One ankle rested on a knee and his head was propped against his hand.  
He looked almost ethereal in the light, his eyes fixed on the TV.   
Castiel seemed to remember overhearing Dean requesting his music for purposes of rooting out where the obsessive behaviour was coming from, Castiel didn’t quite understand it, but clearly Dean knew what he was doing, and it looks like he was doing just what he said he needed to do.  
The choice of song wasn’t lost on Castiel as he turned his gaze to the screen as he saw himself singing with passion, expression and vulnerability. Castiel may not be able to choose his songs, but he always put his all after feeling the lyrics presented to him. It was almost funny how this song talked about loneliness and needing to be protected and loved.  
Dean shifted which made the angel look at him warily to see if he’d been seen, but Dean had merely leant forward, his arms on his knees, pad forgotten, a subtle change in his expression from before.  
It made Castiel stare at Dean in the same mesmerized way as Dean looked at his image on the screen as if he was seeing him for the first time, watching him sing.  
Dean tilted his head slightly, eyes dancing on the screen, and when a tiny smile lifted on the corner Castiel knew if he didn’t leave now, he might just not be able to move his legs at all.  
He scolded himself mentally into leaving Dean in peace and to do his job, moving his legs and trying to control his heartbeat as he made his way back to his room and got into bed.  
Thankfully his mind allowed him to settle and he fell asleep.


	6. The Performance of A Lifetime (If You're Targeted For Death)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dean's job gets even more harder as Castiel attends an important performance.

Castiel arrived to the breakfast table to find that for once, at least for now, he was the only one here.  
It was very rare he got time to himself these days, what with a house full of siblings and staff, and schedules, it just was chaos, Castiel was barely alone except when he was in his room, and if he was elsewhere, others were swooping in to relieve him of any menial task.  
After getting to the counter and starting to make some toast and juice before the cook clambered in, he heard footsteps and glancing to the door he saw the person who had been on his mind all night.  
Dean walked in, dressed in his usual gear, holding what seemed to be gun clips, and was placing them on various places on his person as he went.  
“Good Morning, Dean” Castiel managed to say once he had stopped ogling.  
Dean turned his green eyed gaze upon the angel and nodded “Mornin’”  
“Would you like some orange juice?”  
Dean graced him a small smile and nodded an affirmative.  
“CASSIE!” yelled Balthazar  
Castiel rolled his eyes a little before handing Dean his juice, wanting to steal a few more seconds with Dean alone.  
It didn’t last long though, very soon the boots belonging to his older brother walked into the kitchen  
“Ah there you are”   
Castiel sat at the table with his toast and orange juice and didn’t respond while Dean stayed at the counter.  
“So here’s your schedule for today and tomorrow, we’re gonna work on the talks for the new album” Balthazar instructed as he stood near Castiel, waving an ipad at him.  
Castiel frowned and taking the device he looked at the schedule on his brother’s pad “I thought today Charlie and I could go to the museum, she really wanted to see the Doctor Who exhibition”  
Balthazar rolled his eyes “you really think Dean is gonna let you go there?”  
“I cleared it with Dean” Castiel argued, causing the bodyguard to look up from his own notes by the counter, turning his green eyed gaze at the two brothers.  
“Cassie” Balthazar whined “you can’t tire yourself out for tonight’s event”  
Castiel rolled his eyes “I have a lot more energy than you think I do”  
“You need to relax, be pampered, fitted for your costume, have yourself be made beautiful and chill out your voice” the manager said firmly  
“Is this normal behaviour for a guy singer?” Dean joked a little  
Balthazar turned to Dean, exasperated  
“For a high profile one like Cassie? Yes!”  
“Balthazar, I can be back before I need to go to the venue” Castiel said  
“Hell no, I’m not risking anything” Balthazar retorted as the rest of the family started to filter into the kitchen.  
“For once, could I just-“ Castiel started, but was cut short by his brother  
“How much time have I invested in you? I could be gallivanting around like Michael, but no, I am here making sure you are a success” Balthazar snapped  
“I didn’t ask for it” Castiel said sheepishly  
“But you still wanted to sing” Lucifer added, joining the argument without a blink.  
“Stop fighting me, what I do on my schedule is tight fitted for a reason, a very good reason which means a well oiled ship, of which you will thank me later!”  
Castiel bit his tongue and scanned the ipad again  
“Wait, Charlie isn’t coming tonight?”  
“No, she’ll distract you” Balthazar said, texting on his phone  
“But”  
“Cassie, I said no! I need you focused and on your game! She won’t be alone, Meg will be here” Balthazar waved off.  
Dean watched the whole exchange and looked at Castiel to see what he would do  
“Enough of this childish behaviour” Lucifer said “honestly Castiel, you should be grateful”  
“Exactly, so you’ll do what’s scheduled, capishe?”  
Castiel sighed, shoulders slumping “I capishe”  
“Good, voice test in 30, hurry up”  
Dean clenched his jaw. His mind buzzing as he watched the exchange like he had for the last few weeks. Something inside him just ignited his sense of the self, more in Castiel’s favour. The guy was clearly a lot more than what was shown on packaging, and yet again, his family was bullying him.  
That was it.  
Before Dean could change his mind, he strode over to Castiel and put a hand firmly on his shoulder  
“Excuse us a minute” he said to the brothers, then gave Castiel a look, the angel was looking up at him with very wide blue eyes   
“Let’s go” Dean said  
He didn’t quite wait for a consent before he walked off and more or less pulled Castiel with him  
“Dean, what- Dean!” Castiel stumbled behind him as Dean pulled him by his wrist into a further away room, the music room in fact, and after making sure they were alone turned to his charge, letting go of his wrist.  
Castiel looked wary of his apparent expression, which Dean guessed was stern, and wouldn’t quite make eye contact.  
“What the hell was that?” Dean asked  
“What do you mean?” Castiel asked, tilting his head  
“That” Dean gestured aimlessly towards the direction of the kitchen “you know ever since I got here, it seems to me that your brothers run this show and you’re just the guy who has to sing like a canary”  
Castiel frowned “I love to sing” he stated  
“Did they tell you that?”  
“What? No!” Castiel looked practically scandalised, annoyed  
“I love to sing; sure, they do everything and made me popular but still”  
Dean sighed deeply “Cas, come on, this is your damn career, your life, don’t let them push you around! Let anyone push you around”  
Castiel stared at Dean “what did you call me?”  
“You’re a damn god knows how old, angel!” Dean continued  
“You called me, Cas”  
Dean blinked and faltered in his mini tirade and retracted over the conversation, then realised what had been stated was true. He swallowed slightly, of all the things to pick up on what he was saying, Castiel picked that  
“Well yeah, Castiel is nice but it’s a little bit of a mouthful” Dean said with his cheeks burning a second  
“No one has ever called me that” Castiel said shyly  
“Oh” Dean said, feeling a little stupid, not quite sure what to say as he stood there with hands on his hips  
“Well sorry, I won’t call you that”  
“No!”  
Dean raised an eyebrow at Castiel’s outburst  
“I like it, it’s just, it makes us sound more familiar” the angel blushed  
Dean couldn’t help a small quirk of his mouth for a moment, which made Castiel follow the movement and then blushing even worse.  
“Anyway, enough chick flick movements” Dean cleared his throat, fidgeting on his feet and putting hands back on his hips to regain his leader-tone.  
“I gotta know” he then said to the angel “why the fame monster?”  
“I... didn’t expect to get popular” Castiel admitted “and sometimes fame can be for a good thing, if used correctly, besides we were sort of famous already”  
Dean nodded, recalling the charity acknowledgements of Castiel’s and the obvious fame with the surname.  
“And I love to sing, I really do, Dean” Castiel said, seeing the concern in the hunter’s eyes, his own blue ones softening to the fact that he cared “I have been given a gift, this wonderful gift by God, and it is my job to use my gift to help others find theirs”  
Dean was almost speechless for a moment as he heard the words. Some part of him realised it shouldn’t be surprising coming from an angel, but then it was still nice.  
“Still doesn’t mean you’re brothers shouldn’t run your whole life, Cas”  
Dean held up a hand when Castiel went to protest  
“I don’t mean you shouldn’t love ‘em or respect ‘em, but they need to show the same to you”  
Castiel considered a second and then looked at the hunter a bit sheepishly “I’m not good at confrontation”  
“Then you gotta start somewhere” Dean said “you sometimes gotta do what makes you happy, no one should live through you to get what they want, and you shouldn’t sacrifice yourself all the time and lose yourself”  
Castiel tilted his head with a small smile; it made Dean’s heart skip a beat  
“That is a very wise thing to say, Dean”  
Dean shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck.  
“Thank you” Castiel added  
“Sure”   
The door opened and a woman walked in and smiled softly “Castiel, it’s time for your appointment”  
Castiel sighed slightly and feeling Dean tense beside him looked at his bodyguard  
“My vocal coach” he explained  
“Ah” Dean said, automatically doing the check list on the new visitor for signs of trouble, satisfied for now he nodded “alright, I’ll uh, be nearby”  
Castiel nodded, watching as Dean headed to the door and left the room.

“Alrighty!” Dean said as pulled out a torch and checked it for it’s batteries then handing it to Alfie who was standing next to him.  
“Oh, I’m manning a flashlight?” Alfie asked chock full of glee.  
“Yup, and now I’m going to show you something incredibly skilled” Dean replied  
“Oh?”  
Dean gave a little smile, and without warning, gave the young Novak a firm shove, sending him sprawling onto the floor on his front  
“Gah!”  
“See you’re already partly learning” Dean said as he crouched and lowered himself  
“Uuuggh” Alfie grunted “you could have just asked me”  
“I thought angels were tougher” Dean grinned to himself.  
Alfie gave him a look that reminded Dean much of his little brother, he chuckled  
“So, what are we doing on the concrete by the limo?”  
“We are gonna check under it” Dean said as he rummaged in the bag next to him.  
“How?”  
“With this” Dean said, pulling out a long plastic stick with a mirror attached to it and waving it at the young angel.  
“Shine your light under there, I’ll show you what to do”  
“Doesn’t look so hard”  
“Depends if you know what we’re looking for” Dean responded as Alfie started shining the torch as instructed, peering within.  
“And what are we looking for?”  
“Bombs” Dean clarified  
Alfie jolted beside him, recoiling the torch “bombs?!”  
“That and hex bags”  
“Seriously?”  
“You’d be amazed what people do” the hunter responded then glanced at the young angel next to him who seemed to be hyperventilating “hey hey, calm down Alfie, don’t worry, I’m gonna teach you the full hog ok, what to do and how to deal, alright?”  
Alfie nodded quickly, still looking freaked out  
Dean had wondered if he should have taken the softer approach, but hadn’t, and now he figured he should have gone with his gut  
“Ok look, swap with me”  
“What?” Alfie squeaked, clutching the torch for dear life  
“If you’re gonna believe me there is nothing, you have to be the one to look, so give it”  
Gingerly, Alfie handed Dean the torch and took the mirror  
“Now, look everywhere, I’ll follow you, anything you think is unusual just say”  
“Ok” Alfie said nervously and peered inside with great caution  
“Good, like that, good job”  
“Ah! There’s something, oh father help us” Alfie cried  
Dean leaned forward to look  
“That’s the clutch wire” he said, trying to remain neutral tone  
“Oh” Alfie said “ohhh, thank heavens” he sighed  
Dean patted the kid on the shoulder “south side, let’s go”  
Just as they were finishing up, Dean saw in the mirror the Novaks coming out of the house, clearly ready to leave for their evening.  
Dean got himself up and helped up the younger angel and eyed Castiel. The angel was wearing a large beige trench coat tight around him and he looked at Dean a little shyly.  
“All set to go then happy band?” asked Balthazar as he opened the door to help Anna in.  
Gabriel grinned at Dean and wiggled his eyebrows before patting Castiel on the shoulders to lead him inside the limo and pushing himself inside right after, he was followed by Lucifer.  
Benny got in the car in the front and Alfie followed behind the wheel.  
“Cheer up, Dean, the show must go on” Balthazar said with a grin as he got in, shutting the door behind him.  
Dean shook his head, heading to the car and getting in.

In the back of the car, the Novaks were drinking champagne, and much to Dean’s annoyance, including Benny.  
Dean scowled as he listened to the radio, not liking the feeling running over him.  
“Everyone is excited about the mystery guest at the Rock-a-Roll” said the radio “Castiel Novak tonight, but if you don’t have a ticket, you can forget going”  
Dean scowled at Balthazar  
“Wasn’t me” the angel shrugged.  
Dean narrowed his eyes and turned to the front as Alfie drove on for another ten minutes, the darkening night drawing in, and Dean could pretty much guess that they were drawing near to their destination as he heard the ominous sounds of a mob, and sure enough as Alfie turned a corner, fans were spilling out of the apparent club and into the street  
Benny grinned “yeah!”  
Balthazar whooped along with Gabriel, Dean looked at Alfie who just offered him a small smile, clearly this was normal.  
The sheer level of noise was incredible, just a din of yells and screams and chanting, and it got worse as the limo approached, the fans crowded the car crying out Castiel’s name, crying, just going stir crazy, causing Alfie to slow down so not to harm anyone.  
Security was having a hell of a job trying to keep them in tact.  
Castiel took a deep breath as Alfie pulled up the front of the club, then exited the car with Balthazar, Dean quickly followed, along with Benny.  
Dean’s eyes immediately fell onto Castiel, who was clearly wearing his public face, a wide, show-biz smile, sandwiched between Balthazar and Gabriel, Anna and Lucifer just behind, Benny moved in front, and so Dean took the rear, watching everywhere at once.  
“Oh my god! Castiel!”  
“Aaah it’s him!”  
“I love you Castiel!”  
The crowd pushed forward, reaching and screaming towards Castiel as the family moved towards the door, Dean following as he swiftly and gracefully grabbed a fan by the belt loops as he broke forward and made his way towards Castiel, Dean easily guided him back to the opposite side to waiting security and followed the rest in.  
“Castiel!” said a man, after shaking Balthazar’s hand, Dean quickly analysed him to be the owner of the club, and pretty human.  
“It’s good to see you” he said after hugging the angel briefly “come, your dressing room is all set up”

The family bundled towards Castiel’s dressing room talking all at once and avoiding several bodies of staff and people, Dean of course made his move, motioning for the others to stay put.  
He noted all the flowers and taking out his ghost meter he scanned them, then scanned them for other such things  
“Oh come on” Benny complained as Dean swept the room for hex bags and other such things for angels  
Gabriel and Lucifer rolled their eyes; Anna looked on at Dean interestingly  
“Ok, you can sit” Dean gestured to Castiel, who finally entered  
“Geez, Deano” Gabriel sighed  
Dean pulled out a spray can and started warding the room  
“I don’t think you should do that” Anna said worriedly  
“It’s transparent and will fade after twenty-four hours” Dean responded as he painted a demonic ward on the back wall.  
Castiel looked up interestingly at the sigils as Benny scoffed.  
“Brother, you are strange, he’s gonna be here just a few hours”  
“Yeah? We’re all gonna head out in a moment so he can focus, he’ll be vulnerable” Dean replied coolly.  
No one could really argue that.  
“Well since you mentioned taking off, I’m gonna go get some drinks” Lucifer said  
“I’ll come with you” Anna replied, placing a kiss on top of Castiel’s head “if I don’t see you before, break a leg”  
“Thank you” Castiel smiled.  
Gabriel indicated to Benny to come outside and take a look at Balthazar who was oozing charm on the press, the vampire in need of amusement, followed with a grin in place.  
Dean headed to the door and turned to Castiel “ok, it’s fully warded in here, I’m gonna take a look around, Benny should stay outside, you’ll be ok a moment?” he asked  
Castiel nodded, holding some cards- fan mail to be more precise  
“Yes, I’ll be fine”  
Dean nodded and headed outside, scanning the mass area.  
He was looking for any signs of trouble, walking through and learning about each exit, inspecting things that looked suspicious, eventually he headed into a side room where backstage hands were working, and finding himself unwatched, he got out his ear piece and started setting it up.  
“This is red leader to feather nest, you reading me Alfie?” he said into his radio in his sleeve  
“Yeah I can hear you! Wow! So cool!” said the voice in his ear  
“Good, how’s reception?”  
“Loud and clear”  
“Keep this on at all times, and the channel open, ok?”  
“I will, Dean”  
With that done, Dean pulled out his guns, made them ready, got his other weapons to hand and made ready for battle.   
Because you never knew when it was time for a hunt.

Leaving the area and headed back towards the dressing room he saw Anna approaching him quickly, relief on her face at his presence.  
“Dean, come quickly”  
Dean did not ask, he rushed to the dressing room and pushed himself inside, heart pounding, fearing the worst. Irrational he was sure, but still.  
Eyeing the scene he saw everyone had returned and everyone looked grave, his eyes flickered to Castiel who looked pale, unfocused and shocked. Anna followed Dean in and closed the door after herself.  
“He sent another one” Gabriel muttered to Dean, passing him a note, his golden eyes were angry and worried.  
Dean looked at the note carefully, how the similar use of cut out letters spelled out a similar reign of Castiel having everything and how he was going to die  
“What do you mean another one?” Castiel asked  
Dean looked at the singer, eyebrows raised, Castiel was looking at Gabriel, brow furrowed “Gabriel, what do you mean another one?”  
“They didn’t tell you?” Dean asked his charge, causing the blue eyed gaze to flick to him  
“Tell me what?” Castiel asked more strongly, very worried  
“There were some letters before” Gabriel admitted “same kind of thing, threats, oddball stuff”  
“Oh for” Balthazar said “we didn’t wanna worry you, Cassie” he said quickly, causing the angel to look at his brother with wide eyes  
“And somebody got into the house” Gabriel added  
Castiel’s eyes widened more with panic “someone was in our house?!”  
“Okay, let’s not get hysterical” Balthazar added  
“Let’s get him out of here” Dean said  
“Someone was in the house?!” Castiel cried  
“It was weeks ago, Cassie! You were out of town” Balthazar defended himself  
“While Charlie was there?!”  
“Charlie is okay! The house is like Fort Knox now, right Dean?” Balthazar said, trying desperately to keep things all to his schedule  
“We should get him out of here, right now” Dean said firmly and he went over to help Castiel up  
“There’s no way anyone could…” Lucifer began   
“No way anyone could what?” Castiel challenged as he got up  
“No wait! Cassie! Everyone calm down, calm down” Balthazar cried  
“Yeah lets rethink” Gabriel said   
“There’s nothing to rethink” Dean growled  
“Let’s just see how he is!” Balthazar snapped at Dean and then turned to Castiel with pleading eyes “how do you feel, Cassie?”  
The door suddenly opened, causing every head to whip in it’s direction, a woman walked in with some flowers, the crowds were screaming behind her and trying to reach in, Castiel jumped up and backed up a bit.  
Dean swiftly ascended on the woman and forced her out  
“No flowers, no photo’s” he commanded and shut the door behind her.  
Castiel exhaled, trembling  
The other angels looked at Dean  
“I can’t protect him out there” Dean said  
Castiel blinked “do you think he’s out there?”  
No one could answer, so Castiel turned his full attention on Dean  
“He’s here, isn’t he?”  
“He might be” Dean replied  
“We don’t know that” Balthazar said worriedly “Dean, we don’t know that”  
Castiel turned to his brother, enraged “but you knew he was in my house, Balthazar!”  
“Let’s go home” Gabriel said carefully, finally starting to see some sense.  
“Fine, you make the announcement then, they’ll tear the place apart” Balthazar snapped.  
Dean shook his head and took Castiel’s arm  
“Let’s go Cas”  
Castiel nodded and followed Dean closely, as Gabriel headed off to make an announcement on the stage. Balthazar stayed in the dressing room arguing with Lucifer; Anna followed Dean and Castiel behind.

Dean watched the crowds reaching for Castiel as they walked slowly but steadily towards the exit, Castiel’s eyes were darting in areas, as he heard people chanting his name.  
Dean focused himself on the exit, looking for Benny as well.  
“Wait”  
Dean turned to Castiel as he stopped and immediately guessed what was going through his mind  
“Cas, no, don’t do it”  
Castiel looked at Dean determinedly “you told me to make my own choices, I’m taking it, no one is gonna chase me off stage”  
Dean sighed “Cas-“  
“Dean, you would be going back on your word, I trust you, the conversation is over” Castiel said firmly and turned in the other direction, heading towards the stage.  
Dean took a beat before taking off after him with Anna in tow  
“Cas!”  
Of all the times for the angel to grab a set of balls…  
“Castiel is going on” Anna called into the dressing room to her brothers before they all ran out after him.  
Castiel and Dean got to the side of the stage, through the deafening crowd Dean’s protests were swallowed and he knew there was no point in changing his mind. He watched as Castiel closed his eyes, inhaling through his nose to steady his nerves, then he glanced at Dean and then headed onto the stage.  
Dean watched from the side as Castiel approached Gabriel as the crowd became insane with cheers.  
Castiel smiled at Gabriel, putting a hand on his shoulder. Gabriel seemed to get the message, smiled and walked off to the nearest exit  
Castiel turned took the microphone and gestured to Gabriel’s retreating back   
“Gabriel Novak everyone”  
The crowd cheered as stage hands ran on to clear the area  
“I’m here to sing a song, hope you don’t mind” Castiel said to the crowd with a dazzling smile as he adjusted his head mic, the crowd roaring their approval.  
Dean scanned the room. from what he could see, Benny was on the other side of him, with him was Gabriel, Lucifer and Anna.  
Dean was on the other side and he shifted a little for a better view.  
Music began in the background, with lights and a video projecting on the back wall.  
“Hope you don’t mind being part of my new video!” Castiel called to the increasingly excited crowd, removing his trench coat to reveal a look that certainly had the more vocal screaming from the girls. He wore dark blue jeans, a belt, a forest green shirt and a thin black leather jacket; in a word he looked even to Dean, really gorgeous.  
As Castiel started singing the same song Dean heard when he entered the rehearsal room on that very first day, for just a moment the hunter couldn’t tear his eyes from the angel.   
It was like someone had switched something else on, and the usually quiet, shy person Dean had got used to became a huge presence on the stage, baiting and working his fans and making them cry out for more as he sang, some crying in delight, some screaming themselves crazy, watching every move Castiel made.  
Dean only managed to pull himself away from staring at the talent he could clearly see now it was live in front of his eyes when he felt movement beside him.  
“Are we having a communications problem?” Balthazar asked  
“What?” Dean asked, annoyed as Balthazar’s presence was a distraction, and he kept his eyes firmly on Castiel.  
“Come on, Dean, you know how things go around here!”  
“You told me that you and Gabriel were going to tell him, and you didn’t”  
“But he handled it fine!”  
Dean’s eyes stayed on Castiel, ever vigilant  
“Look, Dean, I know what you’re saying, I know you want to do what’s best for him, I understand that, you have a job to do here, but you have to understand that Castiel has a job to do too” Balthazar explained over the music “and that’s what he’s doing, out there, he’s working, Dean, that is what he does. And if he doesn’t get out there he’s dead”  
Dean spared a glare at Balthazar then before returning to Castiel  
“Forget crazy death threats” Balthazar waved off “if he doesn’t sing… he’s dead anyway!”  
Dean’s growled and pushed Balthazar back out of his eyeline.  
“Stay away from my view point” he commanded.  
He was suddenly distracted by the cheers of the crowd and they surged forward a little and parted slightly.   
Immediately Dean moved more closely so he could scan every face, seeking the commotion, moving into the standing area, he pushed a young man aside into the crowd after he attempted to get on the stage.  
About to give the young fan a piece of his mind, Dean came face to face with a menacing black eyed beastie who was looking at Castiel with no such fan awe.  
The hunter clenched his jaw and slid out his blade from under his sleeve, heading his way to the demon.  
But something made him stop as he noticed shadowy figures, turning to look over his shoulder he noticed four demons, black eyed and intently looking at the angel on the stage.  
Plan b.

Dean took out his blade, and with a twirl in his hand he chucked it with a flick of his wrist into the belly of the demon he was heading towards before, it fell to the floor, parting the shocked crowd.  
Dean had no time to worry about the shocked fans, the female demon had jumped on the stage successfully and was heading purposefully towards Castiel.   
Dean moved towards the stage, pushing aside two teenagers, eyes darting for Benny, but the vampire didn’t appear.  
Thankfully, the angel Castiel wasn’t stupid, he saw the demon coming, Dean could see it by the way he looked at it in the corner of his eyes, the fans hadn’t noticed the demon’s eyes yet and thought it was a fan gaining entry and screamed encouragement. A security man rushed forward a moment later, he would certainly be a goner if the demon was determined to get his prize.  
Dean was but seconds away from ascending the stage to stop the security man when Castiel spotting the danger for the human gestured at the security man to stop, holding out a hand, making out he wanted the fan on the stage with him as he continued to sing, ever the professional.  
The gesture worked and the human backed off, Castiel seeing Dean’s opportunity worked on his act a lot more, moving towards the opposite end of the stage to entice the crowd away from the ‘fan’ on the stage.  
It gave Dean the opportunity to grab the demon and manhandle her to the side, she snarled in anger and frustration, he took two blows, handed three of his own and with the frightened Balthazar looking on, he took a new knife and stabbed the demon under the chin, lightening it up and making her scream, the sound drowned in the bass and drums of the music.  
“Oh my Father” Balthazar stuttered as Dean dropped the body.  
Two more demons had entered on the stage, spurred on by the crowd, Castiel was well aware of them too and took a look to the side where his family were, Benny wasn’t around and neither was Lucifer, the angel continued to sing, backing up a little but making a little wide eyed contact with Dean.  
Dean was on his own.  
But he wasn’t a hunter for nothing.  
Dean moved back onto the stage and made his presence known with the demons, they could practically smell him and the sigils on his anti-possession tattoo certainly made sure they understood the angel was defended.  
The two pairs of eyes turned to him almost instantly, snarling.  
Dean stared them down, flicked his hands slightly and two blades slid down along his wrists hidden under his jacket  
“Hunter” the demon growled and surged on by the desire to kill one, forgo his original mission and headed to Dean.  
Dean grabbed the demon by the front shirt and flung him into the side wing as the other one before.  
Castiel glanced at the fighting pair and moved forward onto the stage to distract his fans as Benny finally appeared and grabbed the second demon, pulling him off to his side to punch him.  
Things were getting out of hand, believing that it was a free for all, the fans surged forward trying to grab at Castiel.  
Dean didn’t stop after his third demon was dispatched as he rushed forward, pressing into his ear piece  
“Alfie, car, back” he yelled  
“Alright!” Alfie said, terrified in his tone.  
The fans were going overly wild by now and had managed to pull Castiel into their waiting arms, trying to rip at him in their devotion.  
Castiel had fear filling his face, he could hear Benny and security racing to get to him, slamming bodies out the way and yelling, but the crowd was taking him further away, the rest of the Novaks had rushed onto the stage in a state of terror, helpless.  
But Dean was in no way going to let anything happen, not now, not ever.  
He punched a man out the way, grabbed a fire extinguisher from the side and aimed it at the crowed, spraying at them. It did the job of scattering the fans and Dean charged into the remaining small bundle that surrounded Castiel, brandishing his demon knife to scare some off, it worked, and another layer moved aside, except for the few that still had the angel, they were still focused on him, trying to pull him in every direction. But some let go as Dean appeared, a man not meant to be messed with, leaving just three.  
Dean growled with perpetual fury, grabbing the collar of a man, in his fifties, looking dazed and wide eyed with awe as he ripped at Castiel’s arm since he was hanging on for dear life, clearly hurting the angel.  
“GET OFF HIM!” Dean commanded “GET OFF HIM!”, when the man didn’t respond, Dean replied with landing two punches to the man’s face to make him let go, it did the trick, and Dean’s clear strength made the other fans let go of the angel in surprise.  
As they parted, leaving Castiel standing there, Dean was finally in front of him. Castiel looked dazed, frightened and overwhelmed.  
Assessing the angel was physically uninjured except for being incredibly ruffled; Dean picked Castiel up in his arms bridal style, and turned to take him away. Castiel immediately curled into him, shaking, arms around his neck but Dean felt an exhale on his neck of clear relief.  
Having seen Dean in action, Benny was ahead of them near the doors as Dean moved through the crowds with Castiel in his arms.  
“Come on!” Benny called as he waved frantically.  
“Benny not there!” Dean yelled, but the vampire didn’t hear and gestured again through a mass crowd to the main exit.  
Dean clenched his jaw and took his own route towards the back; this was his way and quicker, the back door. No one got in his way, everyone was too shocked and Dean was too fast as he carried his burden with fast agility towards the back door, and upon reaching it he lifted a foot and kicked it open, exiting the club between two bins. Dean saw what he expected to see, the limo with Alfie at the wheel, still holding Castiel in his arms, Dean skilfully bent and opened the door, and then got in with Castiel and put him on the seat.  
“Go!” Dean commanded Alfie and the young angel nodded and stepped on the gas and a screech of tires, he drove like a bat out of hell from the alley, narrowly missing Balthazar as he stumbled out after Dean and Castiel, dumbly watching the limo leave without him.  
Alfie did not stop.

Dean waited till they were long on the road and he was certain nothing was following for those first vital minutes and glanced at Castiel who was very, very quiet, even more diminutive, and shaking slightly  
Feeling for him, Dean took off his jacket and laid it over the angel like a blanket  
“Take it easy, Cas, just rest”  
Castiel curled in the seat, almost burying himself in Dean’s coat, so only his tired eyes were visible, then eventually he closed them.  
Dean watched him a moment before turning to the anxious driver  
“Slow down now Alfie”  
Alfie nodded, obeying, glancing in his rear mirror at his brother nervously.  
“Man, that was intense… never done that before”  
“It’s been a long night” Dean agreed, glancing at Castiel as well.  
The angel seemed to be breathing evenly, curled up in the hunter’s coat.  
“Is he ok?”  
Dean shuffled to sit on the opposite seats just behind their driver   
“He’s tougher than you think, he’ll be alright”  
Alfie nodded, knuckles lessening a little on the steering wheel as he seemed to calm down and concentrate on the road.  
“Say Dean” he said after a minute  
“Hmm?”  
“That was pretty awesome what you did there”  
Dean chuckled a little.  
The drive home was thankfully quicker than seemed when they were leaving, and when Alfie pulled up in front of the steps Dean seemed almost loathed to move Castiel, but he put his hand on the angel’s shoulder. A pair of blue eyes opened and looked at him.  
“We’re home, come on”  
Castiel nodded and stepped out the limo with Dean, pulling the jacket around himself.  
“Should I go get the others?” Alfie asked quietly “from the club?”  
“no, stay at home” Dean replied, hand on Castiel’s elbow to guide him upstairs. “just in case we need you”  
Alfie nodded, following the pair inside.  
“Come on Cas, what you need is to rest up” Dean muttered as he escorted the angel upstairs “it’s been a night of it”  
“Can we check on Charlie?” Castiel asked quietly  
Dean glanced at him and then nodded. Alfie parted from their company to speak to the housekeeper as the hunter and singer headed onwards, approaching Charlie’s bedroom door.   
Dean opened it quietly, glancing in and focusing on the red head curled up in bed fast asleep, undisturbed by her door opening. Castiel looked at Charlie with no expression, but tension left his shoulders. Taking it as a cue his charge was satisfied and not wanting to disturb her further, Dean quietly shut the door again.  
Castiel followed Dean automatically up the corridor towards his own room, hands still fisting the jacket around his shoulders.  
“When I fell” he said quietly “when I fell to earth, I landed near to her car, she… she was very kind to me… she took care of me. I vowed to watch over her, even if I wasn’t an angel really anymore”  
Dean looked at Castiel; hand on the doorknob to his room  
“She’s always watched over me really, even now things have changed so dramatically” Castiel sighed  
Dean nodded, opening Castiel’s door and looking inside, he stepped in and did his checks, supernatural and otherwise. Castiel stood quietly without complaint as Dean worked, but he started swaying a little, exhaustion and shock flowing over him.  
Dean noticing the sway went to Castiel and drew him in with a hand on his arm   
"It’s all safe in here, Cas” he assured him as he made him stand in the middle of his familiar room.  
The angel swept his eyes over his things, as if he was assessing he was indeed safe, Dean allowed him without comment.  
He wasn’t sure what compelled him, but something made him put his hand on the back of the singer’s neck and put their foreheads together. Cas was still trembling a little.  
“I’m guessing you’ve not been in a fight for a while” Dean asked, eyes on him.  
Castiel nodded, his eyes closed.  
“You did pretty well against those demons” Dean said, forehead still against the angel’s “but I’m glad you didn’t try to fight them, but you did good”  
Castiel’s gaze at the ground lifted to meet green, drinking in the praise quite clearly he didn’t get often.  
“You’re not angry with me? You aren’t going to ask me why I did that? Went on stage?”  
Dean kept his eyes focused on the blue orbs, not that he could bear to tear them away if he wanted “I know why” he replied.  
For a moment all they did was look at each other, then Dean let go of his grip and pushed off the coat from Castiel’s shoulders  
“Come on”  
Castiel complied by shoving off his other jacket and his shoes, but his fingers were trembling.  
Dean didn’t think about it, he took the hem of Castiel’s shirt and pulled it up over his head, feeling his own cheeks burn when his brain caught up with his actions and he averted his gaze as he tossed the shirt aside.  
Castiel moved out of his view as he tugged on his belt and removed it  
“S-sorry Dean” he muttered, clearly he had been embarrassed too  
“Nothing to worry about” Dean said, keeping his back to the angel as he heard the rustling, then he heard the sheets going back and he turned as Castiel laid down on his bed  
Dean walked over and pulled the sheet over him  
“Get some sleep, alright?” he said, putting a hand on his forehead a moment, stroking it.  
Castiel nodded, eyes wide and curious and they watched as Dean let go and walked to the bedroom door.  
“Dean?”  
The hunter turned to him.  
“Will you stay a little?”  
Dean looked at Castiel for a moment “sure”.  
With that said, Dean took a seat from under Castiel’s desk, turned it and sat beside the bed.  
“I’ll stay till you fall asleep”  
Castiel nodded a little and closed his eyes.  
“You did good, Cas” Dean assured him again.  
It didn’t take long for the angel to sleep.


End file.
